Results 1-20 of 2,464 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:David Curry

Parliamentary Elections (Recall and Primaries): Schedule 7 — Repeals (13 Oct 2009) has video

David Curry: The Bill faces in absolutely the wrong direction. The core of the Bill is to give more powers to the regional development agencies, which are unaccountable bodies. It sets up leaders panels, heavily chaperoned by the Secretary of State, as was said in Committee, to manage the consultation process. The situation should be exactly the other way round—those powers should go to local...

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

David Curry: The proposal from the hon. Member for Thurrock (Andrew Mackinlay) does not require any single council to return to a committee system. It merely gives councils a choice. If the Minister is right and the trend is in the opposite direction, what harm would be done by the hon. Gentleman's measure? He would be proved wrong and the Minister would be proved right. This is not about prescription;...

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

David Curry: The hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, Central (Jim Cousins) should be thankful for small mercies: at least the freemen of the city of Newcastle are not dependent on the Rural Payments Agency to support the cattle grazing on the common. If he had ever dealt with the paperwork necessary to sort out such payments, he would settle for what he has. I note that his football team is top of the...

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Care and Support (Reform) (14 Jul 2009)

David Curry: Care of the elderly is sometimes the hidden and often the unrecognised industry in my constituency and hundreds of others, but it cannot be delivered without a vigorous private care home sector. Will the Secretary of State recognise that the Government have their role to play in ensuring that they do not load costs on to that sector—for example, through the minimum wage or holiday...

Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [ Lords] (1 Jun 2009) has video

David Curry: I draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members' Interests as a columnist for the Local Government Chronicle. It is always a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr. Raynsford). He talked about the black hole into which the Lyons report has fallen, but I think that Sir Michael himself has fallen into something fairly akin to a black hole, too, given...

Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [ Lords] (1 Jun 2009) has video

David Curry: It may be. I occasionally make the perhaps naive mistake, after only 22 years in this place, of thinking that when the Secretary of State talks about a problem, she means to do something about it. I heard her say that the time of representative democracy was past, and direct democracy was now the thing of the future. I call for caution before we are seduced by that, because it simply is not...

Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [ Lords] (1 Jun 2009) has video

David Curry: First, we must, where possible, give competence to the people who are elected, so that the citizen knows that in voting for the council there is a choice of one set of rascals rather than the other set of rascals. If there is a competence there, the citizen is happy to make those choices. Secondly, the citizen will, in the first instance, use the internet as a tool for or against their own...

Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [ Lords] (1 Jun 2009) has video

David Curry: On the whole, I subscribe to that point of view. We see disaffection in all sorts of people. The contrivance of getting people to vote in Tesco, or whatever, has demonstrated that sometimes people's determination not to vote is almost greater than people's determination to vote. I gave way twice in the course of my peroration, which was noble beyond the call of duty, so I will now try to...

Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [ Lords] (1 Jun 2009) has video

David Curry: Does my hon. Friend think that it is a promotion of democracy to seek to bring the Bill out of Committee on 18 June, given that it is unlikely to go into Committee until a week tomorrow?

Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [ Lords] (1 Jun 2009) has video

David Curry: When someone embarks on a strategy, how do they know whether it is going to be sustainable?

Opposition Day — [11th Allotted Day]: Skills in the Recession (18 May 2009)

David Curry: Although we are, of course, all interested in how we got into this mess, I am much more interested in how we get out of it. It would be easy to give a litany of complaints and simply recite the virtues of one's own college—I will not omit to do that. However, I want to pay tribute to the LSC's regional staff, who deal with Yorkshire and Humber. They are deeply embarrassed by what has...

Members' Allowances (30 Apr 2009) has video

David Curry: Does my right hon. Friend further agree that, if a substantive amendment, which, to all intents and purposes, replaces a full text, is not to be regarded as a replacement of that text, we must reconsider the House's procedure, which is based on amendments as a form of scrutiny? For example, yesterday's debate on the Gurkhas might have left us with both the Liberal Democrat motion and the...

Oral Answers to Questions — Innovation, Universities and Skills: Further Education Colleges (30 Apr 2009) has video

David Curry: The Government and the LSC have said that the programme will go ahead on the basis of those schemes that deliver the biggest return on capital in terms of the enhancement of skills. Will he ensure that the criteria are drawn so that colleges with well-developed programmes that serve predominantly rural areas, which tend to be heavily dependent on a handful of relatively low-paying industries,...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: Spring European Council (23 Mar 2009) has video

David Curry: Whatever people's degree of enthusiasm for the European Union, it is commonly accepted that the free movement of people, goods, services and capital is a huge achievement, and that anything that undermined it would be very destructive of prosperity. In the light of that, when we reach the G20 may we have not just another mantra about the evils of protectionism, but a promise of some action to...

Cafcass: Northern Ireland (9 Mar 2009) has video

David Curry: Until last year, 38 Engineer was based in Ripon in my constituency and had been for many years. Does the Secretary of State appreciate the deep pride of the citizens of the second oldest city of England in the bravery of its soldiers, demonstrated notably in Afghanistan and Iraq? If any soldiers can be described as peacemakers, the Engineers must certainly qualify for the description. Would...

[Mr. Mike Hancock in the Chair] — Mountain Rescue Teams (21 Jan 2009)

David Curry: May I add cave exploration to the hon. Gentleman's list? In my constituency, which straddles the Pennine dales of Yorkshire, the Cave Rescue Organisation, which is based in Clapham, does what its name suggests as well as the Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association, which is a more classical organisation. Both are very important, and I endorse the hon. Gentleman's remarks.

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Royal Mail (16 Dec 2008) has video

David Curry: I bet the Minister is looking forward to taking this through the House! On what date was the pension fund last valued, by how much has the stock exchange declined since, and will the Minister have another shot at defining "substantial", as used in the statement he has just given?

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Local Government Finance Settlement (26 Nov 2008) has video

David Curry: The Minister is an intelligent and reasonable man, so will he look into a genuine problem that many councils face because of the way in which the costs of the free bus pass for elderly and disabled people have differed in their impact from the assumptions made when the grant was distributed? Some councils face costs of literally millions of pounds this financial year, and more in the next...

Oral Answers to Questions — Transport: Public Bus Services (25 Nov 2008) has video

David Curry: Will the Minister recognise that the review that he has just promised needs to be carried out with the greatest possible urgency? The scheme whereby elderly people and disabled people will have three bus passes threatens to shoot a huge hole in the budget of dozens of local authorities throughout England. Harrogate's local authority, which serves my constituency, faces a deficit, over and...

Oral Answers to Questions — Communities and Local Government: Local Authority Housing Revenue Account (18 Nov 2008) has video

David Curry: Is the Minister aware that social housing depends hugely on the health of the private sector? A huge part of social housing is a by-product of housing that is in the marketplace. Given the recession that we are entering, is he aware that the Housing Corporation is permitted to finance only up to 40 per cent. of social housing developments, and that the rest must come from sale-for-market...