Results 1-20 of 2,577 for speaker:Lord Maxton

First World War: Centenary — Question for Short Debate (4 March 2013)

Lord Maxton: My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Clark-and I call him my noble friend quite literally-for introducing the debate and for making a speech that was balanced, thoughtful and powerful. I come from a slightly different tradition from those who have spoken so far. My family did not fight in the First World War. In fact, my family opposed the First World War. My uncle, of course, was Jimmy...

Electoral Registration and Administration Bill: Report (23 January 2013)

Lord Maxton: My Lords, I intervene only to make a rather mundane point. The register is a great historical document as well as being useful for electoral purposes. Perhaps my question is for the noble Lord, Lord Norton, rather than for the Minister, but is there a timescale for this? Is there a point at which the full register would become available to those who wish to study this particular period in history?

Electoral Registration and Administration Bill: Report (23 January 2013)

Lord Maxton: My Lords, I shall be very brief, except to say that sometimes I sit here, as I have today, wondering what world it is that we think that we live in. The world around us is changing a lot faster than we are prepared to change the electoral system, apparently. As I have said before and will say only briefly again, what we really need is a national register based on every individual getting...

Electoral Register: Young People — Question (17 January 2013)

Lord Maxton: My Lords, given the advances in smartcard technology in recent years, is it not time that we looked again at the idea of compulsory registration of all children from the age of nought, to ensure that everyone is automatically on the register from the age of 18 without filling in forms or anything else?

Electoral Registration and Administration Bill — Committee (1st Day) (29 October 2012)

Lord Maxton: My Lords, first, I take the opportunity, if I may, to say to my noble and learned friend on the Front Bench that I was not suggesting that we should vote in the same way as on "Strictly Come Dancing". I was suggesting that we are still voting in a very conservative and old-fashioned way, whereas in other forms of national life, we do it differently. I am a little concerned that there has been...

Electoral Registration and Administration Bill — Committee (1st Day) (29 October 2012)

Lord Maxton: As someone who is of the age where they have to renew their driving licence every three years, I can inform the noble Lord that when I do so, all I have to give is my passport number. The photograph that is used on my passport is then automatically used on my driving licence as well.

Electoral Registration and Administration Bill — Committee (1st Day) (29 October 2012)

Lord Maxton: Surely the point about data matching and so on ought to be that people go on the register rather than the other way round. Rather than checking whether or not someone is accurate, there ought to be a way of putting people on to a register and then saying to them, "Are you the person who the register says you are?".

Electoral Registration and Administration Bill — Committee (1st Day) (29 October 2012)

Lord Maxton: What the noble Lord is saying agrees with exactly what I have said. It seems that the identity card solves both the problems he is talking about. It ensures both accuracy and that the person who is registered is the person who is registered and not somebody else. It eliminates fraud.

Electoral Registration and Administration Bill — Committee (1st Day) (29 October 2012)

Lord Maxton: My Lords, I begin by apologising to the Committee because like the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, and the noble Baroness, Lady Jay, I did not speak on Second Reading. I had a specific reason for not doing so. I was on the list to speak but unfortunately I was in the Information Committee. I thought that the business would go on longer but I suddenly realised that I could not make it into the...

Broadband: 4G Mobile — Question (21 June 2012)

Lord Maxton: Will the Minister give an absolute assurance right now that, whatever problems might arise from this, there will be no further delay in the implementation of the 4G rollout? We in this country are already too far behind other countries in rolling it out.

Scotland Bill: Third Reading (24 April 2012)

Lord Maxton: My Lords, it was not my intention to speak on this. Briefly, it was with great pleasure that I listened to the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, use the term "poll tax" instead of "community charge". He actually proved the point that the Minister-who has done an excellent job, I have to say-made in the very first debate this afternoon, that if something becomes the common parlance, it should be used...

Scotland Bill: Third Reading (24 April 2012)

Lord Maxton: That may or may not be the case. It will be shown in both the independence referendum and in future elections after that. The fact is that separate Scottish legislation was passed through this Parliament without the mandate of the people in Scotland for that legislation. If it had been part of the same United Kingdom, there may have been a case for it but it was not. It was for separate...

Scotland Bill: Committee (4th Day) (15 March 2012)

Lord Maxton: The noble Lord said "late lamented"-Wendy is still very much alive.

Scotland Bill: Committee (4th Day) (15 March 2012)

Lord Maxton: As the noble Lord understands it, would the reverse be true? If, say, Mr Alex Salmond decides that he has a project that he knows the Scottish people will support and he puts up the income tax to pay for it-for example, a free new hospital or something like that, on which he knows that the Scottish people will support him-will the block grant be cut accordingly to compensate for the fact that...

Scotland Bill: Committee (4th Day) (15 March 2012)

Lord Maxton: When the noble Lord talks about voting, someone moving from Scotland to England would be able to move their vote. They would not be able to move their tax apparently, but they would be able to take themselves off the register in one place and put themselves on the register somewhere else.

Scotland Bill: Committee (4th Day) (15 March 2012)

Lord Maxton: I am rather confused by this. After listening to the question of the noble Lord from Northern Ireland, I can see a situation arising in which a soldier could be posted to, say, Edinburgh, and could rightly show that his family, wife and children live elsewhere in the United Kingdom-in Northern Ireland-whereas a single soldier in the next room would be resident in Scotland, and therefore on a...

Scotland Bill: Committee (4th Day) (15 March 2012)

Lord Maxton: My Lords, quite properly everyone has been raising the issue of those people who live and work across borders, work on ships and trains, or are lorry drivers. My concern to some extent is those people-I could be one of them-who live in Scotland but whose sole income is a pension from the other place, and whose tax office is Cardiff and not East Kilbride or anywhere in Scotland. I am still not...

Scotland Bill: Committee (4th Day) (15 March 2012)

Lord Maxton: Oddly enough, I am in the unfortunate position at one level but fortunate in another that about five years ago, if not longer, I got my last letter from the Inland Revenue. It said, "Please do not send us any more tax returns because we know what your income is. It has been the same for the last 10 years so don't bother any more". If I moved house, I am not sure that anyone would know where I...

Scotland Bill: Committee (4th Day) (15 March 2012)

Lord Maxton: Why change the habits of a lifetime?

Scotland Bill: Committee (4th Day) (15 March 2012)

Lord Maxton: There are, of course, people who live in Scotland, who even work in Scotland, but who are paid from England or elsewhere in the United Kingdom. They, too, create a problem because, as far as I am aware, the PAYE system does not depend on where you live but where you work or who you are employed by.