Results 1-20 of 1,012 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Alan Simpson

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (11 Nov 2009) has video

Alan Simpson: Despite the robust rejection that he received from the United States, may I congratulate the Prime Minister on his attempt to advocate the case for an international application of the Tobin tax on speculative capital transactions? At a time when nation states are manifestly failing to meet the funding obligations that they have made on the eradication of poverty, the delivery of food security...

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

Alan Simpson: I fully endorse the 10:10 campaign and proposals, and I hope that the House will fully endorse them and sign up to them tonight. The Government are right that we need more than a one-year strategy, because we have to have a strategy that takes us through to 2020, but the most important part of the imperative in signing up to the campaign has not come from any argument in this House; it came...

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

Alan Simpson: I do not believe that it is impossible for the Government to achieve that 10 per cent. reduction. One of the ways in which they could deliver on it is by not only accelerating the introduction of the feed-in tariff regime that they propose, but changing the framework from one that works back from a minimalist, fairly measly assumption that we can deliver only 2 per cent. of our energy by 2020...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: UK Low Carbon Transition Plan (15 Jul 2009)

Alan Simpson: I hope that the Secretary of State will take the opportunity to remind the press, as well as the House, that the one comprehensive study on the costs of introducing an ambitious framework of feed-in tariffs has shown that, by 2020, the UK energy account would be £12.5 billion better off as a result of our being able to produce our energy rather than importing it. That, however, depends...

Energy and Climate Change: Domestic Energy Tariffs (9 Jul 2009) has video

Alan Simpson: The Secretary of State will recall that earlier in the year the Prime Minister met a group of MPs who were concerned about the complete mess the energy companies are making of social tariffs. Only 600,000 households of the 5.1 million in fuel poverty are included in the tariffs, many of which are so obscure and inaccessible that they are just a really bad joke. At the time, the Prime Minister...

Opposition Day — [14th allotted day]: Iraq Inquiry (24 Jun 2009) has video

Alan Simpson: I welcome the fact that there is going to be an inquiry, but I share the feeling expressed by other hon. Members that in reality, it is not the Prime Minister who is on trial in this debate but this House. I am quite happy to acknowledge that the terms of reference that the Prime Minister has set are unnecessarily and unhelpfully restrictive, both on the membership and make-up of the inquiry...

Opposition Day — [14th allotted day]: Iraq Inquiry (24 Jun 2009) has video

Alan Simpson: I think that is the case, and it will confirm to the public that everything this House did not want to know in 2003, it does not want to know now. If we set the terms of the inquiry so narrowly that it cannot carry out the rigorous forensic investigation that is required, it will be subject to the ridicule that it deserves. I remind the House of some of the inconvenient elements that were...

Appointment of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Planning: National Policy Statements (20 May 2009)

Alan Simpson: My hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) is right that there could not be a better time for the House to debate the amendment to the proposals for national policy statements. There is a call for a root-and-branch rethink of what Parliament is about—not only how we manage our expenses, but how we accept responsibility for the big issues that affect people's...

Oral Answers to Questions — Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Carbon Reduction (19 May 2009) has video

Alan Simpson: In pursuing an agenda that will reach out to the developing nations, will the Foreign Secretary pay particular attention to the need to draw in and draw upon current experiences in China? As he will know, China is responsible for 20 per cent. of the world's production of photovoltaic panels, and is currently increasing its production by 50 per cent. a year to deliver full electrification of...

Green Energy (Definition and Promotion) Bill (8 May 2009)

Alan Simpson: That is a terribly important point and it is worth hanging a point of reference on it, which is the experience in Germany. Last year, the German Government evaluated the cost of introducing feed-in tariffs and how they need to be incorporated in domestic bills, set alongside the savings that Germany has made by transferring other, much less efficient subsidy systems. Feed-in tariffs have...

Green Energy (Definition and Promotion) Bill (8 May 2009)

Alan Simpson: The hon. Member for East Surrey (Mr. Ainsworth) generously thanked a whole list of people for their help in preparing the Bill and supporting its presentation before the House, but the one person he failed to mention was himself. It is important that there is, across the House, a recognition of the role that he has played not only in bringing this Bill before us but in keeping climate change...

Green Energy (Definition and Promotion) Bill (8 May 2009)

Alan Simpson: That is absolutely right, and in some ways it is almost a no-brainer.

Green Energy (Definition and Promotion) Bill (8 May 2009)

Alan Simpson: That was not in any way meant as an insult; I just wished to question why we cannot occupy the space that the hon. Gentleman describes. I brought across representatives of a couple of German biogas companies to talk to people in my constituency who were very keen on moving into biodigestion of domestic waste. One thing that staggered not the community but the local authority representatives...

Green Energy (Definition and Promotion) Bill (8 May 2009)

Alan Simpson: That is important, but it is also important that the House consider other possibilities that may arise in how we can approach the decentralisation of energy generation. One lesson that struck me in my work on examining arrangements in Germany was that, across continental Europe, there is a much stronger tradition of decentralising not only energy generation but ownership and accountability....

Members' Allowances (30 Apr 2009) has video

Alan Simpson: I am standing down at the next election, so it would be very easy for me to say, "A plague on everyone's houses" and let the House get on with it, but my comments will be about the defence of Parliament more than that of parliamentarians. That is why it is important for me to say that we need to hand the matter over to the Kelly committee and sign up to applying whatever Kelly comes back...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Afghanistan and Pakistan (29 Apr 2009)

Alan Simpson: I welcome the list of initiatives that the Prime Minister mentioned in relation to development, democracy and diplomacy in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Does he accept, however, that the line that cannot be crossed would be one that saw any involvement of UK troops, either conventional or special forces, in Pakistan? Does he agree that that would inevitably lead to a civil war in Pakistan,...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation — Amendment of the law (22 Apr 2009)

Alan Simpson: Given the perilous state of the world economy in which the Budget has had to be presented, I wondered whether the Chancellor would open his Budget statement with reference to words used by someone else. I could have pictured him opening with the following remark: "I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation — Amendment of the law (22 Apr 2009)

Alan Simpson: One of the things that has annoyed and confused me over the years is the nonsensical view of incentives. Whenever we talk about what is required to provide incentives to work for the poor, it is compulsion and punishment. But apparently the rich have to be courted, wooed and induced to work. We need a consistent view of what mobilises people. This may be an appropriate time to reverse the...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation — Amendment of the law (22 Apr 2009)

Alan Simpson: Those are important points, and we are going to have to weigh very carefully the carbon footprint of manufacture. Nothing can be made without a carbon impact—that would be like making an omelette without using eggs. That is the difficulty, and the question that we must resolve is how we make sure that the carbon gain of what we do outweighs the carbon cost. That is a terribly important...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation — Amendment of the law (22 Apr 2009)

Alan Simpson: Bought off, I hear from my friends and comrades. I welcome the ritual denunciation, but I ask them to hold fire because there is a gap between that appointment and the fact of not having a single meeting with officials at the Treasury or the Department of Energy and Climate Change to drive that through. All my experience suggests that there is an intellectual inertia at the core of our civil...