Results 1-20 of 287 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Lord Willoughby de Broke

Financial Regulation: EUC Report: Motion to Take Note (10 Nov 2009)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: My Lords, I begin by congratulating the two chairmen and members of both committees for producing these two stimulating reports. What I did not grasp until I started preparing for this debate is that the questions that the reports address are not remotely new. Banking crises have been erupting periodically for centuries. Sovereign default on loans is an everyday hazard for banks, just one...

Banking — Question (10 Nov 2009)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the legality of the European Commission's decisions on the future of banks in the United Kingdom owned or partly owned by the Government, in the context of the expiry of the present Commission's term of office on 31 October.

Banking — Question (10 Nov 2009)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: My Lords, while I am grateful to the Minister for that reply, I am afraid that I am not satisfied by it. Nowhere does the treaty, under any article for the reappointment of the Commission, allow for reappointment in a caretaker capacity; there is simply no legal basis in the treaty for that. It therefore follows that, in all its actions since 31 October, the Commission has been acting beyond...

Banking — Question (10 Nov 2009)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: My Lords—

Banking — Question (10 Nov 2009)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: There is time. As the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, said, the question is not whether the Commission has done a good or a bad job; it is whether it is legal. I do not accept the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Kinnock. I should like him to quote Article 216 to see whether the Commission is legal. I do not believe that it is; it may have to be tested in the courts.

Constitutional Reform — Question for Short Debate (6 Jul 2009)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: My Lords, I am most grateful to my noble friend Lord Pearson for so eloquently introducing the Bill in my name, which had its First Reading about a month ago. In the time allowed I will touch briefly on only three points. Since both the noble Lords, Lord Grocott and Lord Stoddart, have been rather exercised about the number of MPs, perhaps I could make one or two points on that. Yes, of...

Parliament and the Public — Question for Short Debate (16 Jun 2009)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: My Lords, there are three essential measures that will go a long way towards achieving the aims of the debate of the noble Lord, Lord Renton. The first is to repeal the 1972 European Communities Act. Seventy per cent of our law is now handed down from Brussels to Westminster by the unelected and unsackable European Commission. It has been rubber-stamped by a parliament impotent to change so...

Energy: Wind Turbines — Question (12 May 2009)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to communicate more widely the recent statement by the Rt Hon. Ed Miliband concerning the unacceptability of objecting to wind turbines.

Energy: Wind Turbines — Question (12 May 2009)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: My Lords, I am most grateful to the Minister for that Answer. Could he confirm that, because of the intermittent nature of wind power, all wind farms need permanent back-up from conventional generating plant? Does he agree, therefore, that supporting wind farms is as socially unacceptable as sneezing in public during a flu epidemic?

Working Time Directive — Question (5 May 2009)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: My Lords, does the Minister believe that working hours for British people should be made by the British Parliament?

Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations 2009 — Motion to Approve (24 Mar 2009)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Jones, on introducing her amendment, which has been supported by all speakers so far. I do not intend to mention the detail; that has already been dealt with extremely effectively by the three previous speakers. I want to go rather broader. The final sentence of the amendment calls upon the Government to, "withdraw the Regulations, and...

Railways: Investment — Statement (12 Feb 2009)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: My Lords, I declare an interest as a victim of Great Western's sometimes aspirational timetabling. Can the Minister tell us when the electrification improvement begin, and when will it end?

Motion to Take Note (12 Dec 2008)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: My Lords, I can at least agree with the noble Lord, Lord Tomlinson, on one thing in congratulating the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mance, on his report and on the work that the committee has done to produce it. I was taken with the preamble, which said that the committee was dedicated to "lift the veil", as it was elegantly put, in the call for evidence on the process of the creation of EU...

Motion to Take Note (12 Dec 2008)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: My Lords, of course the Commission proposes, but the Council of Ministers has very little control over what the Commission then does. The Council of Ministers is simply a channel for taking the proposals of the Commission and passing them through to national Parliaments. It has very little control over what the Commission does. I hope that the noble Lord will accept that the Commission is the...

Motion to Take Note (12 Dec 2008)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: My Lords, I am grateful for that intervention, but there are a number of reasons why the Irish voted against the Lisbon treaty. I do not think that losing a Commissioner was the principal one. It was one of many reasons why they voted against. I have read only today that they are to be given the chance to vote yet again. The EU does not like a vote against it. It will have another and the...

Motion to Take Note (12 Dec 2008)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for her clarification. Perhaps I should have made it clear that her quotation should have finished with the words "where it all ends up". My interpretation was that we know it all ends up in the wastepaper basket, which of course is true because as I made clear, no legislation, apart from the intangible provision on mobile phones, has ever been put...

Pesticides (11 Nov 2008)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper. In doing so, I declare my interest as an arable and grassland farmer in Warwickshire. The Question was as follows: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they support the European Commission's proposals for further regulation of the use of pesticides in the European Union, which are currently being considered...

Pesticides (11 Nov 2008)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: My Lords, I am most grateful for, and rather heartened by, the Minister's response. I think that this directive is to be signed off in January next year and it will then be 18 months before it becomes law. Will the Government use their best endeavours to ask the Council of Ministers and the Commission to set up an expert working group to examine, as he says, the scientific risk-based...

Railways: Network Rail (19 Jun 2008)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: My Lords, do the Government agree with the award of a knighthood to Moir Lockhead, chairman of First Great Western, which is the worst performing rail franchise in the country? Do they think that that is a suitable reward for such inefficiency?

European Union (Amendment) Bill (11 Jun 2008)

Lord Willoughby de Broke: My Lords—