Results 1-8 of 8 for smoking speaker:David Laws

Public Bill Committee: Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill: Clause 236 (26 Mar 2009)

David Laws: ...units and short stay schools. I am surprised at the suggestion to call them “schools for alternative education”, as that sounds like the sort of left-wing, peacenik, lovey-dovey drug-smoking stuff that the hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings would be violently opposed to. I am horrified by the thought that he might be reading this assiduously at his  breakfast...

Public Bill Committee: Education and Skills Bill: Clause 45 (21 Feb 2008)

David Laws: ...ill, or is unlikely to benefit from the service offered. When the Minister was put under pressure on that point, he quickly rode back and said that this is all fudge and mudge. Great puffs of smoke went up in front of him and suddenly all of those great reassurances did not amount to, as the Americans say, a hill of beans—as we say in Somerset, Ohio and such places. On a reassurance...

Value for Taxpayers' Money (19 Jan 2005)

Mr David Laws: .... Friend the Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) has already made it clear that we are committed to delivering those savings. That brings me to my next point. There is triple counting and a lot of smoke and mirrors in the other parts of the James report, and similarly, when we look at the small print relating to the 235,000 reduction in jobs, we find that it includes the 80,000 reduction...

Public Bill Committee: Finance Bill: Clause 1 - Rates of tobacco products duty (6 May 2004)

Mr David Laws: ...Secretary that I accept that the background to the debate is the long-term and considerable political consensus in this country that tobacco duties should be raised to reduce the incidence of smoking and to provide what has become a good revenue source for the Exchequer. Looking at some of the, as ever, excellent briefing notes produced by the House of Commons Library, I note that the...

Child Trust Funds Bill: New Clause 4 — Reduction of Age of Majority in Respect of Child Trust Funds (3 Feb 2004)

Mr David Laws: ...these matters previously, I reminded the Committee of the existing entitlements under the law at the age of 16. People of that age can leave education, enter full-time employment, have sex, smoke, play the national lottery, join a trade union, apply for a passport, pay tax, pay national insurance and, with parental consent, join the armed forces, get married or leave home. We know that the...

Public Bill Committee: Child Trust Funds Bill: Clause 3 - Requirements to be satisfied (6 Jan 2004)

Mr David Laws: ...' other entitlements. The entitlements of people in this country who have reached the age of 16 are as follows: they can choose to leave education and enter full-time employment; they can have sex, smoke, play the national lottery—a form of gambling if ever there was one—join a trade union and apply for a passport. The Government are happy for them to pay tax and national...

Finance Bill: [Sir Alan Haselhurst in the Chair] — Clause 1 — Rates of Tobacco Products Duty (13 May 2003)

Mr David Laws: ...a number of years before deciding in 1999 that the automatic link should be broken, while implementing the 5 per cent. rise in the March 2000 Budget on the basis that it would encourage existing smokers to smoke less or quit and discourage young people from taking up the habit. All parties, at different times, have therefore supported the strategy of increasing tobacco duty. It has no...

Finance Bill (6 May 2003)

Mr David Laws: ...Committee, John Whiting of PricewaterhouseCoopers said, when asked who were the notable winners from the Budget, that he could think only of "young couples, with a new child on the way, non-smoking, whisky drinking, with a grandmother over the age of 80 who plays a lot of bingo." That is verified by the serious figures from the Institute for Fiscal Studies on the effects on particular...