Results 1-20 of 31 for iraq speaker:Kenneth Clarke

Amendment of the Law (27 Apr 2009) has video

Kenneth Clarke: I am delighted to follow the Secretary of State. I have been an admirer of his over the years. In my opinion, he was correct about the invasion of Iraq, and more than any other opponent of that folly he was very courageous about it, so I am delighted to see him back in office. I may be quite an admirer of his, but I must say that I was disappointed today. He took the classic current Brownite...

Oral Answers to Questions — Communities and Local Government: Iraq (1 Apr 2008) has video

Kenneth Clarke: How long does the Secretary of State think it will be acceptable for him to keep coming to the House to express condolences for the deaths of men serving their country in Iraq, and then going on to describe an unexpected and violent turn of events over which the British appear to have little or no influence or control? Is not the present situation that a very violent military conflict has...

Orders of the Day: Clause 8 — Commencement (5 Mar 2008) has video

Kenneth Clarke: .... It would be quite a decisive moment for our foreign affairs policy and our role in the world. I am not impressed with our position in foreign affairs. Both main parties supported the invasion of Iraq, the biggest foreign policy disaster in recent years, and we have a totally discredited American President and Administration. The President now has more support in the House of Commons than...

Oral Answers to Questions — Leader of the House: Iraq (8 Oct 2007)

Kenneth Clarke: Does the Prime Minister not accept that it is becoming almost impossible to see how the cause of democracy and development in Iraq can be served by the continuing presence of British troops? It is almost impossible to see how a rapidly reducing number can play any worthwhile part in overwatch, given the disorder in southern Iraq, and it is quite inconceivable that the Prime Minister will ever...

Opposition Day — [11th Allotted Day]: Armed Conflict (Parliamentary Approval) (15 May 2007)

Kenneth Clarke: ...some future Government do not try to rely on the wrong bits of the proposals or slip back from where we appear to be going. This change seems to be one of the few beneficial outcomes of the recent Iraq war. We are not, of course, debating the merits of the war today, but it is the controversy surrounding it that has led to this change. It has revealed how weak our constitutional...

Opposition Day — [11th Allotted Day]: Armed Conflict (Parliamentary Approval) (15 May 2007)

Kenneth Clarke: I wholly agree. In terms of both Iraq and Afghanistan, we are currently unclear about what the Government believe will happen. We have not had adequate parliamentary scrutiny. I supported the operation in Afghanistan, and I was against that in Iraq. There is no argument against Parliament's considering a serious substantive motion about the future conduct of operations in both places. It...

Opposition Day — [11th Allotted Day]: Armed Conflict (Parliamentary Approval) (15 May 2007)

Kenneth Clarke: I do not agree with that analysis of events at all. The whole point about the invasion of Iraq is that it was not a sudden or quick process. It was a very long process, planned back in 2002, involving a remorseless build-up to an invasion that became ever more inevitable the more that preparations were made. One can see that from Bob Woodward's descriptions of what was going on in the United...

Opposition Day — [11th Allotted Day]: Armed Conflict (Parliamentary Approval) (15 May 2007)

Kenneth Clarke: ...prevail. There will be cases like Suez, when Ministers lied to Parliament quite substantially—which I have no basis for saying that Ministers in the present Government did in the case of Iraq. There will also be cases like Iraq, in which there was controversy, and eventually it was proved that the whole thing was wrong. But in other cases, if a British Government facing our enemies,...

Orders of the Day: Foreign Affairs and Defence (22 Nov 2006)

Kenneth Clarke: ..., even more strongly than I intended, the point that others have made. It is really a disgrace that the House is not allowed to have a structured debate on the changing nature of our policy on Iraq, which is undoubtedly going to change in the very near future, and that we do not seem likely to have such a debate in the near future. Three weeks ago, we had a half-day debate contrived by the...

Orders of the Day: Foreign Affairs and Defence (22 Nov 2006)

Kenneth Clarke: ...and Highgate that events are moving in America where the whole issue is being extremely vigorously debated. Policy is shifting in the light of the results of the mid-term elections, which, on Iraqi grounds at least, I greatly welcomed. I also share the view of my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Devizes. I have no confidence that any British input into the process is being...

Opposition Day: [Un-allotted Half-Day] — Iraq (31 Oct 2006)

Kenneth Clarke: The Foreign Secretary would get rid of the dissention this afternoon and send out a fairly united message if she said that there will be a Franks-type inquiry into the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath as soon as the troops are withdrawn. I cannot understand whether she is saying that she accepts the need for such an inquiry but that the time is not ripe, or whether she is saying in weasel...

Orders of the Day: New Clause 5 — Delay in proceedings under section 13 (16 May 2006)

Kenneth Clarke: .... I do not often feel the frustration that a left-wing member of the Labour party must sometimes feel about the priorities given to business by his Front Bench, but there were times during the Iraq war when I was slightly impatient about the opportunities we had, the timing of the debates and the form of the motion proposed through the usual channels to be debated on the Floor of the...

House of Lords Reform (31 Jan 2006)

Kenneth Clarke: ...got on well personally, but I thought we were politically like chalk and cheese until we suddenly found ourselves in total agreement on House of Lords reform and, as it happens, on the invasion of Iraq. The fact that people such as Robin Cook, my hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham and I could be brought to such close agreement shows that the time is right for such reform. Finally, I...

Written Answers — Defence: White Phosphorus (12 Dec 2005)

Kenneth Clarke: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on how many occasions white phosphorus weapons have been used by British forces during the invasion and occupation of Iraq; and at what level of command their use was authorised.

Railtrack (24 Oct 2005)

Kenneth Clarke: ..., bullying officials, money beyond dreams of avarice, chicanery and lies. Laid bare have been the inner workings of Tony Blair's courtier style of government. The Scott inquiry into arms-for-Iraq was small beer in comparison. The case tells us more about Whitehall's view of the world than ever did Hutton. It deserves a Spielberg movie to itself." I cannot say that that is overstated. I do...

Foreign Affairs and Defence (18 May 2005)

Kenneth Clarke: ...soon come for him to end a very long period of premiership of which, in my opinion, he has so far not made very effective or valuable use. I agree with the hon. Member for Leicester, South that Iraq did not dominate the recent election as it dominated his by-election, but I believe that the strange result that we saw was due more to Iraq than to anything else. Iraq itself did not feature...

Foreign Affairs and Defence (24 Nov 2004)

Mr Kenneth Clarke: ...States, but it is only the Government's latest attempt to try to change the subject matter of the debate in the run up to the election. The Government are trying to change the subject matter from Iraq and the associated international problems. It is not the first time that they have tried to do so. They tried to change the subject for most of the summer. Over that period, we were treated...

Foreign Affairs and Defence (24 Nov 2004)

Mr Kenneth Clarke: The issue does not depend on particular personalities. Plenty of Members, from all three parties, are strongly opposed to Iraq and they have struck a chord with the majority of the public; every time a fresh step occurs in Iraq, it reminds them of the circumstances in which the invasion was launched. Like everybody else, I shall not go back over my reasons for having been so bitterly opposed...

Foreign Affairs and Defence (24 Nov 2004)

Mr Kenneth Clarke: I have been a supporter of every military action engaged in by every British Government of any kind since I have been a Member, until we reached the invasion of Iraq. I was a supporter of what we did in Bosnia and Herzegovina, although I had some doubts about it at the time. I was certainly a supporter of what we did in Kosovo, although the legality of such action should be improved, as was...

Foreign Affairs and Defence (24 Nov 2004)

Mr Kenneth Clarke: ...if and when the Government ever have the courage to bring it to the Floor of the House. I end on a note of discomfort with a Government who, it seems, have failed to give us any sensible lead in Iraq and certainly, to a pro-European, any sensible lead on Europe over the past few years. It is an irony that the most pro-European Prime Minister that this country has had since Edward Heath...