Results 1-20 of 2,421 for in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates' speaker:Chris Mullin

Government and the Legislature (25 March 2010) has video

Chris Mullin: As you will know, Mr Speaker, it is the custom when we come to this place for a new Member to make a maiden speech. With your indulgence, I wonder if I might initiate a new genre tonight: the valedictory speech. I have been in this place 23 years. I hope that, during that time, I have left the occasional footprint in the sand, but I am under no illusion. Only a handful of those of us who...

Government and the Legislature (25 March 2010) has video

Chris Mullin: I defer to my right hon. Friend. We are on our ninth or 10th Prisons Minister. I was the sixth Africa Minister and the current incumbent is the ninth. That does not make for good government. I turn briefly to our 24-hour media. The free flow of information is the lifeblood of democracy, but I do wonder if we politicians have not gone too far in trying to ride the tiger. Perhaps future Prime...

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Topical Questions (16 March 2010)

Chris Mullin: I put it to my right hon. Friends that cuts in public spending are not the only way to reduce the deficit. We could, for example, raise the basic rate of income tax, not to as much as it was under Mrs. Thatcher, but by a penny or two.

Oral Answers to Questions — Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Tibet (2 March 2010)

Chris Mullin: Has my right hon. Friend any information about the whereabouts of the Panchen Lama, who was for all practical purposes kidnapped at the age of five or six by the Chinese Government and has not been heard of since, even now, about 15 years later? Has my right hon. Friend ever asked the Chinese about the whereabouts of the Panchen Lama?

Report from the House of Commons Reform Committee on Rebuilding the House (22 February 2010) has video

Chris Mullin: I listened with great interest to the right hon. Member for Tonbridge and Malling (Sir John Stanley). I agree with him that the timetabling process has been abused in recent years, although I am not against timetabling in principle because there were also many abuses of the old system. However, I think that our proposal for a business committee that dealt with all the business of the House...

Report from the House of Commons Reform Committee on Rebuilding the House (22 February 2010) has video

Chris Mullin: I do support that as an interim measure, but I should like us to get to a position at which it becomes a Committee of the House. There are obviously some special considerations to be taken into account, and perhaps the Prime Minister does have to be consulted, but in general I support that idea. I am not a procedural expert, so if the hon. Gentleman will forgive me I shall not attempt on my...

Report from the House of Commons Reform Committee on Rebuilding the House (22 February 2010) has video

Chris Mullin: I agree with my right hon. Friend-I used the term "holiday from scrutiny", I did not suggest that we are all on holiday during the recess. I know that he is not, and I know that I am not, but I know the public think we are. That is the problem.

Report from the House of Commons Reform Committee on Rebuilding the House (22 February 2010) has video

Chris Mullin: We have to start somewhere, and I get more and more puzzled about what my hon. Friend actually wants. She said that many of the proposals that we are discussing this evening were arcane and too complex for the outside world to understand, but this is one that the outside world has grasped readily. It is about time we grasped it, too. We are not asking for anything revolutionary, just for...

Report from the House of Commons Reform Committee on Rebuilding the House (22 February 2010) has video

Chris Mullin: I do not accept the word "holidays"-they are parliamentary recesses-but I agree that there is no reason why they should be so long. We are going to make progress slowly and I do not want to trouble the House with anything too revolutionary, but eight days in September is not too much to ask. The Committee's conclusions, some of which were compromises because the Committee did not agreed on...

Report from the House of Commons Reform Committee on Rebuilding the House (22 February 2010) has video

Chris Mullin: My hon. Friend circulated to members of the Committee her objections to what is proposed, and I respect those, but I have not yet heard her set out the reforms in which she is interested. Can she give us a clue?

Report from the House of Commons Reform Committee on Rebuilding the House (22 February 2010) has video

Chris Mullin: Where do the Opposition stand on allowing the House, subject to the Prime Minister's approval, to elect the chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee?

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (10 February 2010) has video

Chris Mullin: Will my right hon. Friend confirm that it remains his intention, in the event that this Government are re-elected, to restore the link between old age pensions and earnings, which was abandoned in the early 1980s?

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (27 January 2010) has video

Chris Mullin: May I put it to my right hon. and learned Friend that one of the causes of the growth in inequality has been the extension of outsourcing of jobs that were previously done in-house? A class of working people has grown up that no longer qualifies for pensions, sick pay, redundancy pay and all the other things that in the 20th century we used quaintly to associate with civilisation. Is it not...

Business of the House (14 January 2010) has video

Chris Mullin: I appreciate that my right hon. and learned Friend might not have any more to say on the Wright proposals, but I do. I appreciate also that they are ultimately a matter for the House, but could the Government show a little more enthusiasm about them? Were we to vote down everything that has been proposed, that would damage the entire political system and us as a class; and the way things are...

Business, Innovation and Skills: Agency Workers (14 January 2010) has video

Chris Mullin: What plans he has for legislation on the regulation of agency workers; and if he will make a statement.

Business, Innovation and Skills: Agency Workers (14 January 2010) has video

Chris Mullin: I am grateful to my right hon. Friend, but it is a pity that this has been left until so late in the day. How confident is he that the matter will be dealt with before Dissolution?

Corporation Tax Bill: The Economy and Business, Innovation and Skills (26 November 2009) has video

Chris Mullin: I start more or less where the hon. Member for North-West Norfolk (Mr. Bellingham) left off, with the agency workers Bill, which I welcome. An insidious development -the growth of outsourcing-has taken place in the past 20 years or so, and with it has grown an underclass of people who no longer qualify for sickness pay, paid holidays, redundancy pay and all the things we quaintly associated...

Corporation Tax Bill: The Economy and Business, Innovation and Skills (26 November 2009) has video

Chris Mullin: I do not seek to wave aside the problem of debt. I am glad that the right hon. and learned Gentleman has at last conceded-perhaps he will do so again when he winds up the debate for the Opposition-that this crisis, or "Labour's debt" and "the mess that Labour has got us into", as I keep hearing Opposition spokesmen call it, has something to do with the bankers. I am grateful to him for...

Corporation Tax Bill: The Economy and Business, Innovation and Skills (26 November 2009) has video

Chris Mullin: As so often, the hon. Gentleman does not get it right. I am not arguing that. I am just saying that the British Government did quite a lot in bringing this most recent-and particularly large-crisis to a halt, not just in this country, but around the world. Many distinguished foreigners appear to have noticed that, even if the hon. Gentleman and we in this country have not. I was pleased to...

Corporation Tax Bill: The Economy and Business, Innovation and Skills (26 November 2009) has video

Chris Mullin: I may be able to assist with the hon. Gentleman's inquiries. I had lunch the other day with someone who works for a very big bank in the City, as one does, and he told me that he thought the official figures were wrong and that we were already out of recession. That was his opinion, which he said was also the opinion of his bank. Last night- [Interruption.]