Results 1-20 of 457 for speaker:Eric Joyce

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

Eric Joyce: Will my right hon. Friend confirm that the continued risking of British troops' lives in Afghanistan will be contingent on an acceptance from the obviously corrupt President Karzai of a significant dispersal of power away from him?

Opposition Day — [20th Allotted Day]: Future of the Territorial Army (28 Oct 2009) has video

Eric Joyce: I agree with much of what the hon. Gentleman has just said, but does he think, as he has just implied, that expenditure in the MOD should be led by the Treasury?

[Mr. David Amess in the Chair] — Israeli Settlements (21 Jul 2009)

Eric Joyce: I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Rob Marris) on securing this debate. The debate is timely in the light of President Obama's intention to achieve a freeze on settlement development, which has been referred to already, and Netanyahu's recent comments, which have been heavily caveated, but which are a general step in the right direction. It is clear that...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: Building our Common Future (6 Jul 2009)

Eric Joyce: My right hon. Friend will be aware that the US Government tie US aid very tightly, in some respects, to US foreign policy objectives. Can he confirm that he has no plans to do the same in the UK when it comes to UK aid by, for example, reintegrating DFID with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office?

Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Older People: Recession (29 Jun 2009)

Eric Joyce: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps her Department is taking to assist older people during the recession.

Prayers: Forces Widows' Pensions (Equality of Treatment) Bill (19 Jun 2009) has video

Eric Joyce: That improvement seems particularly important. Around the country there are not a huge number of people affected, but we come across a surprising number of cases in which people involved in same-sex relationships have left the forces, lived with their partner for 20 or 30 years afterwards and then died, and their partner has not received any benefit from their pension. I believe that the new...

Written Answers — Olympics: Paralympics (8 Jun 2009)

Eric Joyce: To ask the Minister for the Olympics what criteria will be used to judge the success of the London 2012 Paralympics.

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

Eric Joyce: Can my right hon. Friend estimate the cost of a referendum?

Written Answers — Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs: BBC Kinyarwanda Service: Rwanda (19 May 2009)

Eric Joyce: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received on the suspension of the BBC Kinyarwanda service for Rwanda; and if he will make a statement.

Business of the House: Easter Adjournment (2 Apr 2009) has video

Eric Joyce: Last week, I read a test that those who want to live in the UK and take UK citizenship have to pass. At a meeting of my constituency Labour party, we discussed whether we could answer the questions ourselves. I bought a little book with all the questions from the Portcullis House bookshop. Actually, some of them are not that easy; some are quite tricky. One of the questions asks about the...

Business of the House: Easter Adjournment (2 Apr 2009) has video

Eric Joyce: I am, too; I am sure that that has not been missed. The answer was that Members of Parliament meet their constituents and raise issues in Parliament. There were also a few other subsidiary points about the things that Members of Parliament do. However, the book did not say that we legislate; it mentions nothing about legislation, which strikes me as the oddest thing. I have been here for...

Business of the House: Easter Adjournment (2 Apr 2009) has video

Eric Joyce: My hon. Friend says that I do not have to use it—

Business of the House: Easter Adjournment (2 Apr 2009) has video

Eric Joyce: I note what both of my hon. Friends on the Front Bench are saying, and it is not necessarily the same thing. What I was banging on about was this: in this place, one can do a lot as a Back Bencher, looking at legislation and picking things up instinctively. If something seems as if it is not right, quite often it is not. Often that is just the way it is; we do not get perfect solutions to...

Business of the House: Easter Adjournment (2 Apr 2009) has video

Eric Joyce: The hon. Gentleman may well be correct—I am sure that he is; he has been here longer than me—but if he is, I was not aware, because I do that all the time. All sorts of people are experts in their field, but if we cannot talk to them, we simply cannot get knowledge about a particular situation. If I wanted to know something obscure about traffic regulations or something like that,...

Business of the House: Easter Adjournment (2 Apr 2009) has video

Eric Joyce: My hon. Friend moved as though he was looking in a particular way, but from here I could see only his finely honed pectorals heaving, which I probably misinterpreted. In any case, in the example of MEPs that the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Sir Robert Smith) mentioned, the corollary of us speaking to local government officials may be MEPs talking to sovereign Government...

Business of the House: Easter Adjournment (2 Apr 2009) has video

Eric Joyce: Perhaps. Let me draw together the strands of that extensive description of HNCs and education in Scotland. There is tremendous scope, if we look carefully at legislation, to see little niggles here and there that we can tidy up. If we tidy them up, sometimes that will have significant effects on constituents. My phase 2 argument is that there seems to be a bit of a dysfunction in Scotland...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (1 Apr 2009) has video

Eric Joyce: It is 10 years since the introduction of the minimum wage in the UK. It is not in the history syllabus yet, as far as I am aware, but I recollect that not everybody in this place agreed with it. Will the Prime Minister join me in celebrating something that has helped millions of British working people?

Uk Aid (DRC) (31 Mar 2009) has video

Eric Joyce: When it comes to mobilising enormous resources and making huge interventions that have the power to change the world, nothing compares with the power of government. This week's G20, led by our Prime Minister, will seek to do exactly that, following on from the Gleneagles summit and other major initiatives. Of course, Governments lead by consent and, in general, they must reflect the...

Uk Aid (DRC) (31 Mar 2009) has video

Eric Joyce: Well, in due course. My hon. Friend will know that 2 miles in the Congo can be a long, long way. In a way, we did that classic thing that politicians do. Arriving on the scene in lovely long-wheelbase Land Rovers, we had the potential to change the situation, but we had to make a judgment. In due course we made the judgment that other people in our circumstances would have made, which was...

[Hugh Bayley in the Chair] — Race Equality (12 Mar 2009)

Eric Joyce: In following on from the excellent speech by the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Lynne Featherstone), I am being a bit opportunistic because I just want to make a quick point that I had hoped to make in an intervention. For a short period between a previous job and coming to this place, I worked for the Commission for Racial Equality. Part of my job involved funding race equality...