Results 1-20 of 1,670 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Jim Cousins

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Banking Reform (3 Nov 2009) has video

Jim Cousins: The Chancellor is asking the British taxpayer to guarantee £280 billion-worth of RBS loans. How much of that is outside Britain?

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Bank Liabilities (3 Nov 2009) has video

Jim Cousins: What the liabilities will be of the proposed (a) good and (b) bad banks to be formed from Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley.

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Bank Liabilities (3 Nov 2009) has video

Jim Cousins: I thank the Chancellor for that answer, but he will know that many thousands of home owners are likely to be left behind with the £50 billion to £60 billion in the old Northern Rock mortgage book. They are not well off, and they are not rubbish, as Opposition Members are so keen to say. What sort of future, and what sort of mortgage deal, will they have?

Parliamentary Elections (Recall and Primaries): New Clause 2 — Parish polls (13 Oct 2009) has video

Jim Cousins: May I invite the Minister to consider this point? The provision in the Bill does not confer a right other than if the freemen of that particular body choose to confer a right. New clause 4 confers the right untrammelled. There is no brokerage. The right is conferred directly to the daughters of freemen. It does not depend on the brokerage of another body to achieve that.

Parliamentary Elections (Recall and Primaries): New Clause 2 — Parish polls (13 Oct 2009) has video

Jim Cousins: I rise to move new clause 4, which stands in my name, and I hope to offer the House a little explanation of it.

Parliamentary Elections (Recall and Primaries): New Clause 2 — Parish polls (13 Oct 2009) has video

Jim Cousins: I am as always grateful for your clarification, Mr. Deputy Speaker. New clause 4 would give the daughters of freemen the right to become freemen in their turn. The present situation is that only sons have that opportunity. The proposal would thus correct a significant inequality. It would also correct an anomaly that undermines freemen, where they remain, when exercising functions on behalf...

Oral Answers to Questions — Children, Schools and Families: Sale of Government Assets (12 Oct 2009) has video

Jim Cousins: Does the programme of disposals include all or part of the business of Northern Rock?

Employment Opportunities: Transparency: financial assistance (10 Feb 2009) has video

Jim Cousins: I had not intended to speak in this debate, but the correct description by the right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) of the United Kingdom as a large pool of bank debt loosely tied to a medium-sized country was a telling one. He went on to refer to the possibility that our Government, and others in the western world, might be testing to the limit the ability of Governments to raise...

Employment Opportunities: Transparency: financial assistance (10 Feb 2009) has video

Jim Cousins: I did have some idea about that, but I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for pointing it out, because it brings me to my next point. Through British taxpayers' support for the RBS balance sheet, we are supporting a very large stock of United States car loans. The British taxpayer is standing behind those loans. Does the House not find it peculiarly ironic that the Government are...

Employment Opportunities: Transparency: financial assistance (10 Feb 2009) has video

Jim Cousins: May I put three examples to my hon. Friend? Let us say that the Bank of England were to start buying Government debt; that the Treasury were to start issuing debt directly to businesses, institutions or arms of local government; or that the Government were to decide that they had to support credit insurers and created a new credit insurance facility in order to keep business moving. Those...

Employment Opportunities: Transparency: financial assistance (10 Feb 2009) has video

Jim Cousins: May I follow that up? My hon. Friend has made it clear that the facility will be available only to UK banks, but an important point that should not be overlooked is that much of the exposure that will be supported could be outside the UK. In fact, I can think of one or two big financial institutions that will carry most of their exposure outside the UK. Is that also covered by the loan facility?

Oral Answers to Questions — Communities and Local Government: Council Housing Rents (20 Jan 2009) has video

Jim Cousins: If she will suspend or reduce the formula guideline rent increases for council tenants for 2009-10.

Oral Answers to Questions — Communities and Local Government: Council Housing Rents (20 Jan 2009) has video

Jim Cousins: I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for her reply, but she knows that council tenants throughout England face rent increases of between 5.5 and 7 per cent. That is a heavy burden and councils place the responsibility for it at the door of the Government's formula rent guidelines. May we reconsider the matter? Nine thousand tenants in the city of Newcastle pay full rent and the burden on...

Olympics: Financial Markets (6 Oct 2008) has video

Jim Cousins: Does the Chancellor recognise that the markets are in a panic because the authorities are seen to be losing control of events? The right place for the risks of a rescue is not the balance sheets of national Governments, which are there to help the less well-off, not the super rich. Tomorrow he must go to Europe and get a Europe-wide run-off and rebuild facility that can really bear the strain...

A1 (8 Jul 2008) has video

Jim Cousins: May I ask the Minister to reconsider the matter in the light of the opening of the second Tyne tunnel, which is due to take place in 2012? The Tyne tunnel road was originally the A1, and the A1 was routed round to the west of Newcastle, but that was some 20 or 30 years ago. May I ask him to reconsider the matter, as some of the information to which he just referred would look entirely...

Orders of the Day: New Clause 7 — Earnings link (22 Apr 2008) has video

Jim Cousins: If I may, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I would very much like to have the opportunity to explain whether I shall call for a Division on new clause 16.

Orders of the Day: New Clause 7 — Earnings link (22 Apr 2008) has video

Jim Cousins: May I urge the hon. Gentleman not to provoke the Whips Office? There is absolutely no need to do so. The Whips have been entirely reasonable today, and if he provokes them, goodness only knows what will appear in next Sunday's newspapers. [ Laughter. ]

Orders of the Day: New Clause 7 — Earnings link (22 Apr 2008) has video

Jim Cousins: It is better than the alternative. We are a fairly low form of life, and the accusation is often made that we fail to spot issues at the right time, and that we fail to press matters to a conclusion when it is right and proper to do so. I look forward to hearing from my hon. and learned Friend the Minister; I hope that he will completely reassure me. I ought to let him know before he speaks,...

Orders of the Day: New Clause 7 — Earnings link (22 Apr 2008) has video

Jim Cousins: Let me begin by saying that nothing is more glorious to God than a sinner that repents, even if, as in this case, the sinner is a Conservative. If we have achieved consensus on this issue, now is a good moment to put that into effect. I pay great tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness (Mr. Hutton), because in many respects the package consisting of this Pensions...

Orders of the Day: New Clause 2 — Means testing (22 Apr 2008) has video

Jim Cousins: I am not trying to tempt the hon. Gentleman on to some rather difficult rocks here, but is it not possible that, unless we get this right, many people will seek to take a double advantage of the new system by using the trivial commutation rules? That could well involve the people who have very small pension pots because they have very small incomes, and a lot of unscrupulous people could...