Results 1-20 of 2,288 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Peter Luff

Business of the House (5 Nov 2009) has video

Peter Luff: On the subject of cast-iron guarantees, may I remind the Leader of the House of one that the Government have given on many occasions to hold a debate on the pre-Budget report? May I push her for an early indication on that—it will be a particularly important pre-Budget report—and for a commitment on such a debate, please?

Onshore Wind Turbines (Proximity of Habitation) (3 Nov 2009) has video

Peter Luff: It would not.

Onshore Wind Turbines (Proximity of Habitation) (3 Nov 2009) has video

Peter Luff: I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to specify the minimum distances permissible between onshore wind turbines of certain dimensions and the nearest habitation; and for connected purposes. When Oscar Wilde wrote that "Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative", he obviously had not anticipated the controversy that onshore wind farms would...

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Higher Education (3 Nov 2009) has video

Peter Luff: There is a great deal to welcome in the statement and also some things on which we need to encourage the Government to go further. I am particularly pleased to read in the report about the inadequate information, advice and guidance at school to which the Minister referred. The Government's recent response to the report of the then Select Committee on Innovation, Universities, Science and...

Nato: Royal Mail (20 Oct 2009)

Peter Luff: Does not the Minister see that the uncertain note that the Government have sounded about the future of the Postal Services Bill must have contributed to the decision of the Communication Workers Union to threaten industrial action? Can he therefore clarify the future of that Bill, which is still languishing under remaining orders on the Order Paper? That would also have the benefit of...

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009)

Peter Luff: You were a Blairite once!

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009)

Peter Luff: I am now very glad that I came to this debate. Hearing the speech by the right hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras (Frank Dobson) has certainly taken me back a few years, that is for sure. How reassuring it was to hear an old voice reasserting itself in the Chamber. I have one simple question to ask him: who has been in power for the past 12 and a half years? Some elements of his...

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009)

Peter Luff: With pleasure, but by the way, the reason why I did not intervene when the right hon. Gentleman asked his question about hedge funds was that I cannot name a single hedge fund. It was a pass, not a negative.

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009)

Peter Luff: I will happily send the right hon. Gentleman some of the excellent speeches by my hon. Friend the shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, who calls for better and more effective regulation of the banking system all the time. Indeed, to jump ahead in my remarks, it was the incompetent reordering of the financial services system by the right hon. Gentleman's Government that contributed to the mess...

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009)

Peter Luff: It seems that some of us were more prescient than members of the Government. That report was produced at the request of those on our Front Bench and they paid great attention to it. I am afraid that the right hon. Gentleman is wrong. However, I am glad that he took us back. I do not know how far—probably to the heady days of nationalisation in the post-war period.

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009)

Peter Luff: It was to the 1930s, 1940s. I am glad that the right hon. Gentleman took us back, because in his opening remarks the Minister sought to take us back to the 1980s. I am an old man, it seems, in parliamentary terms. I was brought up not in the '80s, but in the 1970s—a book published today by my good friend Lionel Zetter implicitly describes me as a grizzled veteran of the Major years. My...

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009)

Peter Luff: I want to caution my hon. Friend about this jobs argument, which is a double-edged sword. Sometimes those jobs are lost because of improvements in productivity. We are still producing more. That kind of talk risks a self-fulfilling circle of decline, which I am rather nervous about—indeed, that is one of the major themes of our report, which I shall come to in a minute. There are huge...

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009)

Peter Luff: rose—

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009)

Peter Luff: I am grateful to the Minister. As Select Committee Chairman, I have no wish to engage in partisan politics with him. Does he agree that it is not just what the Government do, but the way they do it? In that context, why did they choose to end their showcase fiscal stimulus programme, the VAT reduction, during the January sales, immediately after Christmas, causing maximum disruption for the...

Opposition Day — [17th Allotted Day]: Higher Education (14 Oct 2009) has video

Peter Luff: rose—

Opposition Day — [17th Allotted Day]: Higher Education (14 Oct 2009) has video

Peter Luff: My Committee has had responsibility for universities for barely two weeks, and I am very sorry but a prior engagement means that I cannot be present to hear the Government's response. Through my hon. Friend, however, may I say to the Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property that I am disappointed that the Government's amendment does not refer to the visa issue? It has been very...

Business, Innovation and Skills: Automotive Assistance Scheme (16 Jul 2009) has video

Peter Luff: I fully endorse the concerns expressed about the urgency of dealing with Jaguar Land Rover, but the supply chain in the automotive sector is also in crisis. Is the Minister able to clarify his position on closing the gap in eligibility under the enterprise finance guarantee scheme and the automotive assistance programme to help the supply chain?

Business, Innovation and Skills: Topical Questions (16 Jul 2009) has video

Peter Luff: May I commend to Ministers and to the House two excellent reports that the Select Committee on Business and Enterprise published recently on pubs and on post offices? If Ministers were to embrace warmly the constructive proposals in both, they would do a great deal to safeguard the vital services on which many deprived, vulnerable and isolated communities depend.

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Equipment Renewal (13 Jul 2009) has video

Peter Luff: What recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department's spending on equipment renewal; and if he will make a statement.

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Equipment Renewal (13 Jul 2009) has video

Peter Luff: But what estimate has the Minister's Department made of the additional cost to its core budget of greater-than-planned levels of equipment usage in Afghanistan?