Results 1-20 of 6,020 for speaker:Michael Howard

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Michael Howard: The regulator on that occasion was the Financial Services Authority. The Gracious Speech proposes to give yet more powers to the FSA. Is not that a reward for failure?

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Michael Howard: I begin by adding my tribute to those that have already been paid to our servicemen who have most recently and tragically lost their lives in Afghanistan. I also add my congratulations to those that have already been offered to the mover and seconder of the Loyal Address. This is the 27th and last Gracious Speech that I have been privileged to listen to as a Member of this House. Over the...

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Michael Howard: I am not entirely sure that that distinction would have been foremost in the minds of the people of the north-east when they came to vote so recently. However, the intervening period has seen devolution and the creation of the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, and my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition is quite right to recognise that not all those changes can or, indeed,...

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Michael Howard: I do not accept that at all. However, there are changes that can and should be made to our electoral system to make it much fairer than it is today-not through measures of the kind advocated by the Liberal Democrats but by equalising the size of constituencies so that the value of the vote that each member of the electorate casts is much more equal.

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Michael Howard: I am always happy to accept endorsement of my views from such a distinguished source. I, too, pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition for doing me the courtesy of being in his place at the moment. The difficulties to which Lord Irvine referred have, of course, been exacerbated by the Human Rights Act 1998, for which he himself had direct and personal responsibility;...

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Michael Howard: No-I am not arguing that at all, and I will come to that point toward the end of my remarks. In that same speech, the DPP welcomed the establishment of the Supreme Court, which he said "presents at least the possibility that we may see a move in time towards perhaps a constitutional court with which other jurisdictions are not only familiar but comfortable." The reference to "other...

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Michael Howard: The essential, critical difference-I am speaking entirely for myself and am not privy to the work that has been done on the Bill of Rights that my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition intends to introduce-would be to remove from our courts the need to carry out the kind of balancing exercise between competing rights that has been thrust upon them by the 1998 Act. That would be the...

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Michael Howard: My next remarks will deal with our relationship with the European convention. I hope that my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition renews the efforts made by the last Conservative Government to persuade the European Court of Human Rights to increase what it calls the "margin of appreciation". That is the extent to which the Court respects the right of institutions in the member...

Bill Presented: Coroners and Justice Bill (9 Nov 2009) has video

Michael Howard: I must first correct the Secretary of State. He said that I was a member of the Chilcot committee, but I was not a member of the original committee. The Conservative representative on that committee was Lord Hurd of Westwell, and I took his place when the committee changed its responsibility and began to supervise the work of the officials in the Home Office who have sought a way to meet the...

Bill Presented: Coroners and Justice Bill (9 Nov 2009) has video

Michael Howard: I agree, and as the right hon. Gentleman will know, we have today been invited by the Home Secretary to extend the remit of the advisory committee to look at the possibility of admitting intercept evidence in coroners' inquests. I cannot speak for the right hon. Gentleman, but I would happily agree to the remit of the committee being widened in that way. I have listened with great care and...

Bill Presented: Coroners and Justice Bill (9 Nov 2009) has video

Michael Howard: I am trying to follow the hon. Gentleman's argument, but I am not at all clear whether his strictures are based on the Secretary of State's reluctance to accept the amendments put forward by the hon. Member for Hendon (Mr. Dismore), or whether they relate to the admissibility of intercept evidence. If he is addressing the latter, I must say that the risk may be small and may arise out of the...

Olympics: Energy National Policy Statements (9 Nov 2009) has video

Michael Howard: Is the Secretary of State aware that his decision to exclude Dungeness from his list of preferred sites will be greeted with consternation by many of my constituents, who will be bemused by the objection of Natural England, having regard to the fact that there are already two nuclear power stations at Dungeness? Will he assure me that he will continue to consult on the possibility of...

Written Answers — Business, Innovation and Skills: Business: Kent (14 Sep 2009)

Michael Howard: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what the (a) rate and (b) percentage of business failure in Folkestone and Hythe constituency has been in each quarter since January 2005.

Written Answers — Cabinet Office: New Businesses: Kent (9 Sep 2009)

Michael Howard: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the rate of business start-ups in Folkestone and Hythe constituency has been in each quarter since January 2005.

Written Answers — Cabinet Office: Unemployment: Kent (9 Sep 2009)

Michael Howard: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office (1) what the (a) rate and (b) percentage of youth unemployment in Folkestone and Hythe constituency has been in each quarter since January 2005; (2) what the (a) rate and (b) percentage of economic inactivity in Folkestone and Hythe constituency has been in each quarter since January 2005.

Written Answers — Treasury: Members: Correspondence (21 Jul 2009)

Michael Howard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he plans to reply to the letters dated 3 March, 28 May and 15 June 2009 from the right hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe, with regard to Mr. Bernard Lockett.

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: Building Britain's Future (29 Jun 2009) has video

Michael Howard: I congratulate the Prime Minister on the close attention he has clearly been paying to the Conservative manifesto for the 2005 election. First we had a points system for immigration; now we have the abolition of top-down targets. Is the Prime Minister not saying, in effect, that the Conservatives were right and he was wrong, and is it not a pity that we have not had a Conservative Government...

Opposition Day — [10th Allotted Day]: Gurkha Settlement Rights (29 Apr 2009) has video

Michael Howard: On that point, will the Minister give way?

Opposition Day — [10th Allotted Day]: Gurkha Settlement Rights (29 Apr 2009) has video

Michael Howard: But are not the Government of Nepal the best people to judge that? Did not they give unchallenged evidence in the court case that they had no objection to the Gurkhas being given the right to settle here?

Opposition Day — [10th Allotted Day]: Gurkha Settlement Rights (29 Apr 2009) has video

Michael Howard: The 2nd Battalion the Royal Gurkha Rifles is based at Shorncliffe, in my constituency. In a bitter irony, soldiers from that battalion returned to Shorncliffe on Sunday 19 April, 10 days ago—just five days before the Government made their announcement—from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. It was a tour of duty in which, yet again, they demonstrated their heroism and valour, and...