Results 1-20 of 491 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Robert Walter

Petition — Equitable Life (North Dorset) (10 Nov 2009)

Robert Walter: The petition relates to the Government's response to the parliamentary ombudsman's report on Equitable Life. I must declare an interest as a policyholder in the Equitable Life Assurance Society. As such, I might enjoy a financial benefit if the petitioners were successful in their endeavours. The petitioners, who are my constituents, are policyholders in the assurance society, their survivors...

Defence Policy (15 Oct 2009) has video

Robert Walter: This has been a very good debate with some excellent speeches, particularly on Afghanistan. I do not want to dwell too much on Afghanistan save to say that in May I was in Kabul visiting ISAF headquarters and Afghan Ministers. Having previously been in Kabul about two years ago, I came away very depressed by the deterioration of the security situation in the area—it had got...

Business of the House (15 Oct 2009) has video

Robert Walter: The Leader of the House will be aware that the South West Regional Grand Committee met in Exeter at the beginning of September. She will also be aware that the Government were heavily defeated on the motion that was on the Order Paper. That was a result of the frustration felt by Members who were present about the fact that after we had heard the speeches of the Minister, the Opposition...

European Affairs (16 Jun 2009) has video

Robert Walter: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

European Affairs (16 Jun 2009) has video

Robert Walter: For the past five minutes or so, I have listened to the hon. Gentleman's tale of doom about what is going to happen to Germany. Can he tell me how much money the German taxpayer has used to bail out those other economies? I am not aware of any.

European Affairs (16 Jun 2009) has video

Robert Walter: I do not propose to say much about the European Union, although I want to talk about European affairs. However, I cannot help reflecting on the statistics just cited by the hon. Member for Glasgow, South-West (Mr. Davidson), and by the hon. Member for Ilford, South (Mike Gapes) earlier, about some of the votes in the European parliamentary elections. The hon. Member for Ilford, South told...

European Affairs (16 Jun 2009) has video

Robert Walter: I am interested to hear the hon. Gentleman's view on that. Today I want to deal with a question of democracy in Europe: the denial by Governments of well-established principles of democracy in the Council of Europe. Her Majesty's Government are not only complicit in that denial, but are a leading advocate of it. I should give a little background. Mr. Terry Davis, a former Member of this...

European Affairs (16 Jun 2009) has video

Robert Walter: And the anthem.

Opposition Day — [13th Allotted Day]: Rural Communities (Recession) (15 Jun 2009) has video

Robert Walter: I am grateful to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for calling me early in this debate. I have some regret, however, that that is as a consequence of the face that not a single Labour Back Bencher is rising to make a substantive contribution. That is symptomatic of this Government's attitude to rural communities and the effects of the recession on them. That may be the reason why, after the European...

Opposition Day — [13th Allotted Day]: Rural Communities (Recession) (15 Jun 2009) has video

Robert Walter: I do not have those figures immediately to hand, but I will come back to the hon. Gentleman. The percentage is relatively low—probably just over 2 per cent., but the trend and the effect of the increases on the community are worrying. All those people have lost their jobs, with little prospect of getting new ones in the short term. My constituency has a high proportion of retired...

Opposition Day — [13th Allotted Day]: Rural Communities (Recession) (15 Jun 2009) has video

Robert Walter: The Minister said that he thought that rural areas were holding up well. How does that translate into the 212 per cent. increase in male unemployment in North Dorset in the past 12 months, or does the Minister think that all those people are registering new tractors?

Giles Carlyle-Clarke (11 Jun 2009) has video

Robert Walter: I am very willing to help. None of the correspondence to which I referred relates to recent events; it all relates to matters that took place before the extradition.

Giles Carlyle-Clarke (11 Jun 2009) has video

Robert Walter: I am very grateful for the opportunity to raise again in the House the case of my constituent, Mr. Giles Carlyle-Clarke. It will probably be helpful if I provide a little background to this case, which I think concerns a serious question of human rights. It is also no coincidence that most of the extradition cases that find themselves being discussed on the Floor of this House concern...

Giles Carlyle-Clarke (11 Jun 2009) has video

Robert Walter: She is still an MP, of course. On that occasion, she was reluctant to respond and it is also true that she sought Mr. Speaker's assistance in trying to rule the debate out of order on the basis that it might be sub judice. Mr. Speaker supported my position and the debate went ahead, although the Minister was still reluctant to give answers to some of the questions that I raised. I know that...

Royal Assent: Defence in the UK (26 Mar 2009) has video

Robert Walter: Like my right hon. Friend the Member for North-East Hampshire (Mr. Arbuthnot) and others, I was a little perplexed by "Defence in the UK", the title of today's debate. I have a major military establishment in my constituency; I referred to it in my interventions, particularly on the hon. Member for Vale of Glamorgan (John Smith), whose constituency will get my defence college when it...

Royal Assent: Defence in the UK (26 Mar 2009) has video

Robert Walter: I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention and share his frustration about the Greek veto over Macedonia's participation in NATO. If we can, we ought to knock some heads together. I remember being in Skopje not long ago with a former Greek Defence Minister, who as we walked into the meeting said that he could not give a stuff what they called their country, but as soon as we were in the...

Royal Assent: Defence in the UK (26 Mar 2009) has video

Robert Walter: The hon. Gentleman is doing a brilliant marketing job, but I am not sure that the instructors at the Defence College of Communications and Information Systems in Blandford would accept his description of the current CIS training regime as "chalk and talk". Could the hon. Gentleman give us some idea—I alluded to this in my question to the Minister earlier—of the likely time scale?...

Business of the House: Defence in the UK (26 Mar 2009) has video

Robert Walter: There seems to be slippage on the defence training review and the move to St. Athan. When it was first announced in 2007, it was all going to be done in 2011, but in a written answer to me yesterday, the Minister said that the date was now 2015. I understand that the contracts are still in difficulty. Will the Minister give us some idea of when we will have some really firm dates?

Business of the House: Council Tax (26 Mar 2009) has video

Robert Walter: The Minister will be aware from discussions that he has had with leaders of one of my local authorities and with me that what is excessive in percentage terms is not always excessive in cash terms. North Dorset district council continues to be one of the lowest taxing authorities for band D in the country, with a band D council tax of just over £100. I wonder whether the Minister could...

Oral Answers to Questions — Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Democratic Republic of Congo (24 Feb 2009) has video

Robert Walter: May I press the Under-Secretary a little further on the future of the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Congo? It has become clear that the MONUC force is incapable of effectively keeping the peace in eastern Congo. I understand from this morning's Financial Times that discussions have taken place between the British and the French Governments about the future of UN peacekeeping...