Results 1-20 of 5,144 for speaker:Denis MacShane

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

Denis MacShane: I read the remarkably arrogant statement that the Conservatives in the other place would block measures put forward in this Queen's Speech. How much more contempt for democracy and the House of Commons do we need from the Conservative party?

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

Denis MacShane: It is a great pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Ross, Skye and Lochaber (Mr. Kennedy). I do not want to talk about Europe at all this evening, but I entirely agree with him. The new alliance that the Conservative party has formed with some of those east European politicians is of the most dubious sort. There was a remarkable article by the shadow Foreign Secretary, the right hon....

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

Denis MacShane: I will give way to my hon. Friend who, I am deeply disappointed to say, is leaving the House. He is an adornment to it, and those of us who are lucky enough to be returned will miss him desperately-and if, after that, he has anything to put to me, I shall willingly take it.

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

Denis MacShane: That is a very fair question, and I shall wriggle on the answer, if I may. I certainly hope to come back for the winding-up speeches. There is a farewell dinner for retiring Yorkshire Labour MPs, for which I have already paid my contribution, and I feel that in due course I ought to go to it, but I will almost certainly read my hon. Friend's speech-if he makes one-with great interest, as I...

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

Denis MacShane: Technically, I do not agree with the hon. Gentleman. Knowing Europe quite well, I can assure him that the social justice and full employment measures that we have introduced-including the huge investment in our NHS and in the schools in my constituency that I have mentioned-represent a remarkable social democratic achievement, of which we on these Benches should be much more proud. I do not...

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

Denis MacShane: I have to say that one rule that was changed early was that Privy Counsellors lost that privilege. I think that this is the first debate in which I have been called to speak before my hon. Friend. However, I am very much looking forward to either hearing his speech, or reading it tomorrow. I will ask other hon. Friends to take careful notes on it and report back to me when I return from my...

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

Denis MacShane: I am fully prepared to consider that idea. I think that there is real problem with our representativeness. Thanks to Labour's policy of all-women shortlists, we have many more women in the House. I congratulate the non-neanderthal Conservatives of Norfolk in seeing off what was obviously an unpleasant misogynist challenge there. However, I worry considerably that as we search for more women,...

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

Denis MacShane: Would the right hon. Gentleman care to reflect on changes of leadership in his own party?

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

Denis MacShane: I wish that the Leader of the Opposition were still here, although I pay tribute to him for staying for some of the speeches. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Dutch auction on parliamentary allowances and expenses between our respective party leaders cannot continue? Each of them has tried to be a bit more sanctimonious and holier-than-thou than the others. The issue had no impact on the...

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

Denis MacShane: Is not the answer to the right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) very simple? In India, there is far greater state control of the economy, well beyond what any Opposition party in this country would propose; and the Australians had the good sense to reject a Conservative Government and to elect a Labour one.

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

Denis MacShane: I accept the thrust of the right hon. Gentleman's argument, but can he therefore explain the following result in a by-election for a council seat a couple of weeks ago, when real British citizens were voting? The by-election took place in south Yorkshire and 2,500 people voted. The result was as follows: 1,500 for Labour, 600 for the British National party, 300 for the Barnsley Independent...

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

Denis MacShane: I am listening to the right hon. and learned Gentleman's speech with great interest, and I am sorry that there are not more right hon. and hon. Members here to hear it. May I pay sincere tribute to the courtesy that the Leader of the Opposition is showing by being in his place for this part of the debate? The right hon. and learned Gentleman criticises judges. Does he remember Michael Foot...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Clause 13 — Paying for sexual services of a prostitute subjected to force etc: England and Wales (12 Nov 2009)

Denis MacShane: I will give way in a moment. You will be glad to know that I am not going to make a long speech, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Every international body from the International Organisation for Migration to the International Labour Organisation and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights talks of hundreds of thousands of sex slaves being trafficked every year. The idea that Britain does not have...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Clause 13 — Paying for sexual services of a prostitute subjected to force etc: England and Wales (12 Nov 2009)

Denis MacShane: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his intervention, but I profoundly disagree with him. That organisation has done a huge disservice to the cause of trafficked women and coerced sex slaves. I particularly welcome and endorse the points made by my hon. Friend the Member for Stourbridge. I very much hope that my own council, Rotherham metropolitan borough council, will seek to use this...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Clause 13 — Paying for sexual services of a prostitute subjected to force etc: England and Wales (12 Nov 2009)

Denis MacShane: We have here a fundamental difference. I am sorry—I am really trying to make a short speech, but I find myself disagreeing with right hon. and hon. Friends on my own side. I can imagine almost any profession, business or trade in the world that I would be happy for any of my three daughters to go into, or that I would have been happy for my mother, my partners and other women friends to...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Clause 13 — Paying for sexual services of a prostitute subjected to force etc: England and Wales (12 Nov 2009)

Denis MacShane: I am shocked that my hon. Friend says that there is a lap-dancing club in her constituency proposing to build 50 private booths. We just heard from the hon. Member for Chesterfield (Paul Holmes)—the Lib Dems are now the party of lap-dancing supporters—but 50 private booths? What on earth does she think will happen in them? A discussion of Lib Dem policy?

Coroners and Justice Bill: Clause 13 — Paying for sexual services of a prostitute subjected to force etc: England and Wales (12 Nov 2009)

Denis MacShane: I wish that I could join my hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) in congratulating the English Collective of Prostitutes, but that organisation has consistently opposed all campaigning efforts to slow down trafficking. Indeed, it was quite violently—I would almost say vulgarly—opposed to the propositions that have come back from the Lords, which are of...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Clause 13 — Paying for sexual services of a prostitute subjected to force etc: England and Wales (12 Nov 2009)

Denis MacShane: Good show!

Coroners and Justice Bill: Schedule 1 — Duty or power to suspend or resume investigations (12 Nov 2009)

Denis MacShane: I am broadly in the same camp as my hon. Friend the Member for Hendon (Mr. Dismore), because I feel that I voted the wrong way on Monday. However, I am a serial loyalist, and sometimes that overwhelms me. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and Lord Chancellor is probably the greatest circle-squarer whom Whitehall has seen in recent years. I tend to follow him, but I remember that...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Schedule 1 — Duty or power to suspend or resume investigations (12 Nov 2009) has video

Denis MacShane: One of the millionaires on the Opposition Front Bench says, "What?" I will send him my book, and if he can say to me that the letters sent by the Ministry of Defence or the then Prime Minister to the families were acceptable, I will give him even more money to add to his millions. By using the Freedom of Information Act in the United States and by talking directly to American officers, we got...