Results 1-20 of 1,503 for speaker:Sir Peter Tapsell

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Banking Reform (3 Nov 2009) has video

Sir Peter Tapsell: Why cannot the Chancellor see the looming spectre of mass unemployment in the next banking crisis, which will be even greater than that of 2008 unless he moves to prohibit the commercial banks from indulging in investment banking? His repeated references to Lehman and Northern Rock are completely irrelevant, as various commentators have pointed out.

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Topical Questions (2 Nov 2009) has video

Sir Peter Tapsell: The Secretary of State has repeatedly and rightly said that many things have changed in Afghanistan since our original intervention in 2001. May I put it to him that one of the things that have changed is that Afghanistan is no longer a threat to this country? Al-Qaeda has moved elsewhere; it does not need caves in the Tora Bora mountains now, because it is able to operate from safe homes in...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Afghanistan and Pakistan (14 Oct 2009) has video

Sir Peter Tapsell: May I put it to the Prime Minister that anyone who thinks that a NATO-trained Afghan army recruited from 67 mutually hostile tribes will defeat the Taliban is living in a political cloud cuckoo land?

Bills Presented: Afghanistan and Pakistan (16 Jul 2009) has video

Sir Peter Tapsell: I fully supported the original intervention in Afghanistan in 2001, and the attack on the Tora Bora mountains, although it was not fully successful. However, since we went back in 2003, I have had great misgivings about the possibility of success. It seemed to me that the objectives that were announced would require a vastly greater commitment of troops, helicopters and back-up than Britain...

Bills Presented: Afghanistan and Pakistan (16 Jul 2009) has video

Sir Peter Tapsell: I quite understood the point that the Prime Minister put to us yesterday: it takes time to convert helicopters that have been operating in Iraq to deal with the conditions in Afghanistan. However, what baffles me about the present situation is that it must surely have been obvious to the chiefs of staff and Defence Ministers some years ago, when we went into Afghanistan, that there would be a...

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Counter-recessionary Policies (14 Jul 2009) has video

Sir Peter Tapsell: While the more cautious entrepreneurs wait to see whether the second shoe of the global crisis is still to fall, does the Treasury understand that early publication of a sound comprehensive financial review would do much to reassure them and bring investment back into the market?

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: G8 Summit (13 Jul 2009)

Sir Peter Tapsell: May I remind the Prime Minister that ever since we went back into Afghanistan in 2003, I have repeatedly warned a succession of Defence Ministers that even 300,000 troops would not be sufficient to succeed in the task that they have been set, a figure that senior American generals have echoed in recent months? Why, yet again, despite the grim history of our interventions in Afghanistan over...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Reforming Financial Markets (8 Jul 2009)

Sir Peter Tapsell: May I remind the right hon. Gentleman that on 11 November 1997 I explained to the then Chancellor over eight columns of Hansard why the tripartite regulation of the banks would not work? May I warn the current Chancellor, with more brevity, that his proposals will not work either? May I modestly suggest that he look at my speech before proceeding to legislation?

Parliamentary Standards Bill (29 Jun 2009) has video

Sir Peter Tapsell: Why is it appropriate to go through this great constitutional rigmarole in advance of the recommendations of Sir Christopher Kelly's committee, which is bound to cover all the same ground? The Prime Minister has said, I think unwisely, that we are going to accept in full all that committee's recommendations, which are bound to cut across some of the proposals in the Bill, which means that we...

Parliamentary Standards Bill (29 Jun 2009) has video

Sir Peter Tapsell: Why not?

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: European Council (23 Jun 2009)

Sir Peter Tapsell: Before we can judge whether President Sarkozy was right in claiming that the Prime Minister had changed gears on European financial regulation, ought we not to resolve the problem, which emerged clearly at the Mansion House, of the disagreement between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Governor of the Bank of England about the necessary changes to our regulatory system, in order to...

Oral Answers to Questions — Children, Schools and Families: Iraq (15 Jun 2009) has video

Sir Peter Tapsell: As a declared sceptic as early as November 1992 of the existence of the weapons of mass destruction, and as a subsequent opponent of the invasion of Iraq, may I put it to the Prime Minister that the disastrous effect of the war has been to make Iran the dominant power in the whole of the middle east? What the British people well understand is that after the capture of Baghdad, the political...

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Inflation (9 Jun 2009) has video

Sir Peter Tapsell: I had intended to congratulate the Chancellor on rising from his grave, but it appears that he is still lurking in the graveyard. May I ask when the Treasury plans to reverse the not very successful quantitative easing programme, in order to moderate inflationary expectations?

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (3 Jun 2009) has video

Sir Peter Tapsell: May I put it to the Prime Minister that the problem of Members' allowances falls within the remit of Sir Christopher Kelly's committee, and should be left there until it reports? The right hon. Gentleman has hinted that he wishes to gain a reputation as a constitutionalist over the issue, so may I suggest to him that as he is almost uniquely unsuited to play the role of a latter-day Thomas...

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

Sir Peter Tapsell: Bearing in mind that there are probably more potential international terrorists in Britain than in the Tora Bora mountains, may I nevertheless congratulate the Prime Minister, no doubt under the influence of the new American Administration, on at last moving away from the political and strategic follies of the last seven years, and on making a much more realistic assessment—that the war...

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Lending to Business (28 Apr 2009) has video

Sir Peter Tapsell: Does the Chancellor agree that the objective of the announced programme of quantitative easing is to increase and facilitate lending by banks to businesses? The Bank of England has warned against another fiscal stimulus, so why is it proceeding with QE in such a half-hearted manner that it has actually raised the yields on gilts? It was also very slow to lower interest rates on the eve of the...

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Persian Gulf (30 Mar 2009) has video

Sir Peter Tapsell: Will the Minister continue to bear it in mind that the main threat in the Persian gulf is that from land-based Iranian rockets, which are capable of threatening the passage of ships through the strait of Hormuz?

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Credit Provision (26 Mar 2009) has video

Sir Peter Tapsell: Does the Chancellor agree that with the declining prospect of growth in the economy, the banks are faced with an inevitable deterioration in the quality of their loan books, so that far from increasing their loans to businesses, they are likely to be seeking the whole time to increase their capital? How will that problem be overcome?

Opposition Day — [9th Allotted Day]: Iraq War Inquiry (25 Mar 2009) has video

Sir Peter Tapsell: Does the Foreign Secretary understand that the main interest of the country will be in the run-up to the war, because it is widely believed that in the summer of 2002 the then Prime Minister, Mr. Blair, and President Bush entered into a conspiracy to invade Iraq and spent the succeeding months until March 2003 manipulating public opinion, falsifying the intelligence information and deceiving...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: Spring European Council (23 Mar 2009) has video

Sir Peter Tapsell: On Second Reading of the Bank of England Bill in November 1997, the Prime Minister may remember that I strongly opposed the triangular regulation of our banks, which has proved such a disaster. In today's circumstances, facing as we are the danger of mass unemployment for years to come in this country and throughout Europe, may I repeat what I indicated before the pre-Budget report—that...