Results 1-20 of 5,050 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:John Prescott

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

John Prescott: May I congratulate the Secretary of State on his statement? It arises from the planning delay over important national energy requirements. I should like to ask him specifically about wind turbine power. As he is aware, we are doing well on offshore investment, but not so well in onshore investment, where a great deal more will have to be done. It appears that recently 75 per cent. of...

Opposition Day — [19th allotted day]: Climate Change (Political Response) (21 Oct 2009) has video

John Prescott: I have listened to many of these debates and had the privilege of being involved in the Kyoto negotiations in 1997, when Britain played the leading part in concluding the Kyoto agreement. It is quite wrong for the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle (Gregory Barker) to be talking as if we have no direction and no delivery. I think he knows as much about this Government's delivery as he does...

Opposition Day — [19th allotted day]: Climate Change (Political Response) (21 Oct 2009) has video

John Prescott: Again, the hon. Gentleman shows his ignorance. Let me tell him this: presumably, there was some leadership to achieve the targets and bring things together. Only four countries in Europe actually achieved the Kyoto target, so we must have been all right on delivery. We were the first to want to talk about carbon trading, which Europe then took over from us. We were the first ones to bring in...

Opposition Day — [19th allotted day]: Climate Change (Political Response) (21 Oct 2009) has video

John Prescott: I do wish the hon. Gentleman would go and talk to his Tory council and see what is actually happening. I have 44 examples of wind farm applications all over the country that have been turned down. They were recommended by the planning officers, but they were rejected by Tory councillors. On appeal, 70 per cent. of those applications, which were rejected by the elected authorities, are imposed...

Opposition Day — [19th allotted day]: Climate Change (Political Response) (21 Oct 2009) has video

John Prescott: The real issue is achieving agreement at Copenhagen—

Opposition Day — [19th allotted day]: Climate Change (Political Response) (21 Oct 2009) has video

John Prescott: No, because other hon. Members wish to speak. I do not think that the European deal, which is based on emissions and which I call plan A, will work. There are 187 countries, not the 40-odd that were at Kyoto. We need consensus, and we need to recognise that 80 per cent. of the world lives in poverty. We are the 20 per cent. who poisoned the world. The emissions argument in the European deal...

Prayers (15 May 2009) has video

John Prescott: Further to that point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker—this is the first time in 40 years, so it is quite a moment for me. As I know from having worked there, the practice in the Council of Europe is that if a person does not turn up for their Bill, the speech that they were going to give is delivered to the official report so that it can be printed.

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: Flooding (England) (9 Jul 2007)

John Prescott: As a Back Bencher, I welcome my right hon. Friend's statement. I echo the praise of the people of Hull for the emergency services, the voluntary services and the local authority workers—they all worked tremendously hard. The floods damaged more than 5,000 houses in Hull, closed many schools—4,000 children were looking for a school—and caused great damage. Tragically, a man...

Oral Answers to Questions — Deputy Prime Minister: Sustainable Cities (20 Jun 2007)

John Prescott: As chair of the China Taskforce, I hold regular discussions on sustainable cities with a range of stakeholders across UK business, academia and Government, including Cabinet colleagues. Creating sustainable cities is important to tackling climate change, especially in China, where 15 million people a year are expected to migrate to the cities over the next 20 years. The taskforce has recently...

Oral Answers to Questions — Deputy Prime Minister: Sustainable Cities (20 Jun 2007)

John Prescott: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her kind remarks and for all the good wishes to me. I want especially to thank all the hard-working doctors, nurses and staff at University College hospital, who work day and night, as the staff in all our hospitals do, to help all of us who are suffering from illness. I think that every one of us would like to express our congratulations to all our NHS...

Oral Answers to Questions — Deputy Prime Minister: Sustainable Cities (20 Jun 2007)

John Prescott: I just do not agree with that conclusion because of the number of houses we have built and the degree of our investment in transport. To provide one classic example, in 1997, I rescued the Channel tunnel rail link from going bankrupt. That was the most important investment in transport innovation in this country and was particularly important for the development of the whole south-east and...

Oral Answers to Questions — Deputy Prime Minister: Departmental Budget (20 Jun 2007)

John Prescott: My Department's budget for 2007-08 is £2.5 million, in line with Treasury guidelines. That figure has already been published in a number of places, including the departmental main estimates and the Department's annual report, a copy of which is available in the Library for the reference of Members.

Oral Answers to Questions — Deputy Prime Minister: Departmental Budget (20 Jun 2007)

John Prescott: I can assure the hon. Gentleman that money has been better spent by this Government than by the previous Administration. I recall in particular that the hon. Gentleman was an advocate of the poll tax. How anyone can come here and talk about this amount of resources when £5 billion was wasted on the poll tax, which he advocated, I do not know. Perhaps he should not be doing that. Let me...

Oral Answers to Questions — Deputy Prime Minister: Departmental Budget (20 Jun 2007)

John Prescott: That is clearly a matter for the incoming Prime Minister, who I have no doubt will do an excellent job.

Oral Answers to Questions — Deputy Prime Minister: Departmental Budget (20 Jun 2007)

John Prescott: I thank my hon. Friend for his kind remarks. No, we have not invested in polls to find that out; quite frankly, I am not a great believer in them. The Department has not spent any money on that. I welcome my hon. Friend's remarks about our contribution to equality. It has not been easy to make some of those arguments in the past, as he well knows, but I am glad to have belonged to a...

Oral Answers to Questions — Deputy Prime Minister: Departmental Budget (20 Jun 2007)

John Prescott: My experience is that there has always been good agreement between my two colleagues and I am sure that it will continue. I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his kind remarks. It seems that while I was away, the Leader of the Opposition had something to say about me, too. He described me as a cross between Ernie Bevin and Dameosthenes— [Laughter.] It seems that I have not yet figured...

Oral Answers to Questions — Deputy Prime Minister: Departmental Budget (20 Jun 2007)

John Prescott: I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his kind remarks. We live in truly remarkable times. As a previous Leader of the Opposition, he must have heard the present Leader of the Opposition say this week that the Tories were "not abandoning Conservative principles, but applying them in new ways to new challenges". That sounds like my "traditional values in a modern setting". So now we know. The...

Oral Answers to Questions — Deputy Prime Minister: Poverty Reduction (20 Jun 2007)

John Prescott: The Government have made considerable progress in reducing poverty and helping the most vulnerable families and older people. The House will recall that, under the Tories, child poverty doubled and one in four pensioners were living in poverty. Thanks to measures such as the national minimum wage and tax credits, relative child poverty has reduced faster than in any other country in Europe,...

Oral Answers to Questions — Deputy Prime Minister: Poverty Reduction (20 Jun 2007)

John Prescott: I thank my hon. Friend for her kind remarks. I am receiving so many today that I might even come back—[Hon. Members: "Hear, hear!"] My hon. Friend has raised the important issue of the difference between a Labour Administration and a Liberal Administration. It is important to so many people living in poverty and to so many people in jobs. Let us judge what the Liberals do in local...

Oral Answers to Questions — Deputy Prime Minister: Poverty Reduction (20 Jun 2007)

John Prescott: The hon. Gentleman knows, because it has been said by the Prime Minister and others at this Dispatch Box, that poverty has gone down. Relative poverty is an important issue, and property prices have played an important part in that. It is equally true, however, that everyone has gained from the prosperity of this Government in the past 10 years.