Results 1-20 of 239 for speaker:Lord Lawson of Blaby

BBC: Funding — Question (10 Nov 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, would the Minister care to consider that one of the principal planks of the public service ethos is that there should be healthy debate on all sides of all major issues? When the views of all the major parties happen to be on one side of an issue, does not the BBC have an even greater responsibility to make sure that the other side has a good hearing?

Banking: Mutualisation — Question (4 Nov 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, would the Minister reflect on the fact that it was the Prime Minister's decision to override competition policy and allow the purchase of HBOS by Lloyds—it is now having to be partially broken up—that contributed greatly to the mess that we are now in?

Government: Debts — Question (29 Oct 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, what is HMRC's latest estimate of the size of the black economy, and how accurate does the Minister think that estimate may be?

EU: Budget — Question (27 Oct 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords—

EU: Budget — Question (27 Oct 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, while the surrender of the British rebate negotiated by my noble friend Lady Thatcher in the 1980s by Mr Tony Blair at the last European Council before he resigned as Prime Minister may have enhanced his reputation among other European countries, with whatever consequences may flow from that, what benefit has it brought the United Kingdom?

Climate Change: Copenhagen Conference — Question (22 Oct 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for reminding the House that the European Union agreement was changed to make it explicitly conditional on a satisfactory agreement in Copenhagen. Is he not aware, however, that that is not the case with the UK's unilateral Climate Change Act? According to the Government's impact assessment, this will cost the economy up to £18 billion every year...

Freedom of Information Act 2000 — Question (15 Oct 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, in common, I am sure, with many former Ministers, I frequently get letters from, in my case, the section of the Treasury dealing with this, saying that it has had a freedom of information request about something that occurred during my time as Chancellor and asking whether I have any observations to make. I say, "No, you go ahead, I've nothing to hide". But it will never tell me who...

Written Answers — House of Lords: Climate Change: Carbon Dioxide Emissions (21 Jul 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: To ask Her Majesty's Government what proportion of total annual United Kingdom emissions, in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent, is accounted for by (a) livestock, and (b) the human population in the normal course of breathing.

Parliamentary Standards Bill: Report (20 Jul 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, my noble friend makes a very powerful case. Consistency is known as the hobgoblin of little minds. In this case it does not apply at all. I draw a parallel with people who give to charity. Sometimes people who give to charity like to have public approbation for what they are doing. Other people give to charity anonymously because they do not want other charities battering on their...

Energy: Low Carbon Transition Plan — Statement (15 Jul 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, is the Minister aware that, whatever view one takes of climate change, to pretend, as this Statement does, that the enforced move from cheaper to dearer energy, greased by lavish bribes at the taxpayer's expense, is economically beneficial displays a level of economic illiteracy that even a first-year student should be ashamed to exhibit? Further, when the Statement boasts that this...

Energy: Low Carbon Transition Plan — Statement (15 Jul 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: Oh!

Arrangement of Business — Announcement (10 Jul 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Baroness the Leader of the House, but if she is doing that she could ensure, with an extra click of the button, that the message goes to all Members, not simply to those who took part in the Second Reading debate.

Reforming Financial Markets — Statement (9 Jul 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, the Chancellor's Statement, which the Minister kindly repeated, represents an inadequate, complacent and muddled response to what is undoubtedly a very complex, but also very important, problem. I do not want to dwell on the past, but since this has come up I have to say that the Minister inadvertently misled the House. Conduct of business regulation and prudential supervision of...

Financial Institutions: Auditors — Question (7 Jul 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords—

Financial Institutions: Auditors — Question (7 Jul 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, I am most grateful. Will the Minister, who has a background that we all respect, look at this again? This is a question not, in my judgment, of the major auditing firms being corrupt but rather of a degree of complacency and incompetence. Is the noble Lord aware that, when Johnson Matthey Bankers went bust on my watch, I authorised the Bank of England to sue the...

EU: Alternative Investment Funds — Question (18 Jun 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, perhaps we might revert to the Question on the Order Paper, eccentric though that appears. Is it not the case that the Minister can be a great deal more robust than he has been so far in these exchanges? Not only is the context for this particular industry global, not European—it is global co-operation which is required—but it is an industry where, unusually, the United...

Written Answers — House of Lords: Climate Change: DfID (2 Jun 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: To ask Her Majesty's Government how much the Department for International Development paid to commission the concept paper An Institutional Architecture for Climate Change from the Center on International Co-operation.

Economy: Public Debt — Question (21 May 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, does the Minister recall that, as a small contribution to restoring the appalling state of the public finances, the Chancellor has promised—this is not a projection but a promise—efficiency savings of £44 billion over the six years from 2008-09 to 2013-14 inclusive? In order to give at least a smidgen of credibility to this figure, will the Minister now tell the...

Climate Change — Question (14 May 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, the Minister was clearly unsighted when I asked him this question during yesterday's debate. Will he tell the House today whether the Government accept or reject DfID's latest report, which concludes that if any successor to Kyoto is to be effective, it must set up a new international institution with extensive, coercive and enforcement powers, and that any country that does not...

Climate Change Act 2008 (2020 Target, Credit Limit and Definitions) Order 2009: Motion to Approve (13 May 2009)

Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, I would not intervene in the Minister's lengthy speech—as we were reminded not to do by his noble friend—if he had answered my questions. May I briefly give him the opportunity to answer them before he sits down? First, when the right honourable Mr Miliband said that carbon capture and storage would not be insisted on unless it were commercially proven, what precisely...