Results 1-14 of 14 for smoking speaker:Alistair Darling

Orders of the Day — Ways and Means: Financial Statement (12 Mar 2008)

Alistair Darling: ...cut carbon emissions; but it is right that if people choose to buy a more polluting car, they should pay more in the first year to reflect the environmental cost. These changes will provide a real incentive for both manufacturers and motorists. We must encourage sustainable biofuels, and therefore the biofuel duty differential will be replaced by the renewable transport fuel obligation. I...

Opposition Day — [13th Allotted Day]: Department of Trade and Industry (6 Jun 2007)

Alistair Darling: ...hon. Gentleman mentioned regulation. However, despite being invited on three occasions to name three regulations that he would repeal, he could come up with only one—the taking down of the no smoking notices. I am sure that for some firms putting up such notices might be a burden, but I would hazard a guess that even if they were all taken down again it would not make much difference...

Opposition Day — [13th Allotted Day]: Department of Trade and Industry (6 Jun 2007)

Alistair Darling: ...were opposed by the Conservatives—it does, in fact, matter. When the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton talked about red tape, I was surprised that he could name nothing more than the no smoking notices that he wants taken down. I think that I am right that, last autumn, he launched the campaign for enterprise, which was hostile to what it described as Labour's family-friendly...

Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland: Members' Voting Rights (28 Feb 2006)

Alistair Darling: .... If I were to represent a constituency from which several thousand people travel across the border every day, I would take an interest in their well-being at work, which might be affected by the smoking ban. I had no difficulty in voting on that matter, and I cannot understand why any other hon. Member would, too.

Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland: Smoking (15 Nov 2005)

Alistair Darling: In Scotland, health issues are the responsibility of the Scottish Executive. As the House will know, smoking is the greatest single, preventable cause of ill-health and premature death in Scotland.

Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland: Smoking (15 Nov 2005)

Alistair Darling: The hon. Gentleman is right to suggest that smoking damages people's health no matter where they smoke. However, health is devolved to the Scottish Parliament, so it is entirely up to it to take a different view from the legislation that applies to England. The experience internationally—for example, in New York and Dublin—is that the ban has not been damaging in the way that its...

Opposition Day: Pensions (8 Jun 2000)

Mr Alistair Darling: ...is no way that, with their tax guarantee, the Tories can find more money for pensioners in the future. The shadow Chancellor went on to say: It is money which is already being spent. We have had smoke and mirrors from the Tory party. The shadow Chancellor made other revealing points, which bring me on to the point made by the hon. Member for Havant about losers. Under the hon. Gentleman's...

Orders of the Day — Social Security (28 Jan 1999)

Mr Alistair Darling: ...no longer to have mortgages, and the higher fuel duty, although, as one gets older, one tends to drive less. He included also the higher tobacco duty, and, although I concede that some pensioners smoke, I am not sure that they all smoke like chimneys. The hon. Gentleman lumped in council tax for good measure, ignoring council tax benefit. By comparing and contrasting all those factors...

Opposition Day: The Economy (29 Jun 1998)

Mr Alistair Darling: ...that a middle-income family will be worse off. It is a spurious calculation; the structure of the family chosen is far from typical, and it has changed since its last outing. A few weeks ago, the family did not smoke; now it does. The Conservatives complain about the increases in road fuel duty, but they introduced the fuel duty escalator at 5 per cent. When the right hon. and learned...

Orders of the Day — Finance Bill (10 Jul 1997)

Mr Alistair Darling: ...11 increases the rate of tax on hydrocarbon oils. Clause 12 increases the duty on tobacco, for which we make no apology. It is important to deter people, especially young people, from starting to smoke. It is intensely depressing to travel up and down the country and see that smoking among young people appears to be becoming more prevalent. By now, the Finance Bill will be familiar to...

Spending Review (11 Jun 1997)

Mr Alistair Darling: ...party was hidebound by a dogmatic approach that was both inefficient and wasteful. The right hon. and learned Gentleman also said that our approach to the National Audit Office was about smoke and mirrors. On the contrary—it is to shine some light on public finances. Because of the position we inherited, we asked the National Audit Office to look at some of the assumptions that had...

Public Expenditure (6 Mar 1997)

Mr Alistair Darling: ...us this year. As I did not see him around the House and found that he was not included by the Tory party chairman in the line-up at press conferences called to denounce us, I took the trouble to smoke him out. I went to his constituency to try to find him. He was not there. They were all crying out, "Where's Wally?" There was no sign of the Chief Secretary. I did find something. I found...

Orders of the Day — Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation (29 Nov 1995)

Mr Alistair Darling: ...searching for a solution, and the Budget, like the Queen's Speech, has proved something of a damp squib. As my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry, North-East (Mr. Ainsworth) said, the Queen's Speech was supposed to smoke us out, but instead people saw the bankruptcy of the Conservative party's policies and position. The Budget is no different. It was supposed to be designed for political...

Natural Heritage (Scotland) Bill [Lords]: Powers of SNH with Regard to Storage of Radioactive Waste (25 Apr 1991)

Mr Alistair Darling: ...with the end products of the industry. All of us are rightly concerned about the damage that has been done to our environment by what I might call conventional energy sources. Many of us see the smoke belching from power stations such as Longannet, not far from Edinburgh. We wonder what it is doing to the ozone layer and the environment, and naturally we look to alternative sources of...