Results 1-20 of 21 for terrorism speaker:Damian Green

Bill Presented: New Clause 2 — Short-term holding facilities (14 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: ...at our borders. We know that our porous borders are a significant contributor to a number of crimes—not just illegal immigration, but drug trafficking, people trafficking and, at the margin, terrorism. We know that 60 per cent. of the illegal immigrants who are in the UK arrived through illegal means. Although the practice of overstaying by people who have arrived here legally is a...

Opposition Day — [15th Allotted Day]: Identity Cards (6 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: ...'s speech revealed the essential emptiness at the heart of the Government's remaining arguments for the scheme. He was at pains to say that the Government had never argued that it was going to stop terrorism or be that effective against crime or benefit fraud, and that, in fact, there had never been any particular purpose to it. He is right: those arguments were all used at various...

Opposition Day — [15th Allotted Day]: Identity Cards (6 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: I see no advantages to the identity card scheme, and I could happily discuss it with my colleagues in local government. We all now agree that ID cards will not prevent terrorism; that is now of no dispute between anyone. They certainly will not prevent illegal immigration, because foreign visitors will not have to have an ID card unless they plan to stay in the UK for more than three months....

Opposition Day — [15th Allotted Day]: Identity Cards (6 Jul 2009)

Damian Green: The right hon. Gentleman suggests that there was never any mention of terrorism. The Prime Minister described identity cards as an important weapon in the war against terrorism, and said that it was crucial to the destruction of terrorism that we should be able to spot quickly where multiple identities are being used. For the Home Secretary to stand there and say that the Labour party has...

Orders of the Day: Counter-Terrorism Bill (19 Nov 2008) has video

Damian Green: ...agree—indeed, he indicated as much in his opening remarks—that this is a fairly extraordinary process. The provisions are extremely important to the Bill and to the wider battle against terrorism, but, although I quite understand the pressures, not only were the provisions not introduced in this House, but they were introduced at a late stage of the Bill's passage in the other...

Orders of the Day: Counter-Terrorism Bill (19 Nov 2008) has video

Damian Green: ...strive for agreement on security matters. The Home Secretary has said all along that she wants a consensual solution, and so do we, as it goes without saying that there is no division on fighting terrorism; it is the method of doing so that has divided us during the Bill's passage, as this group of amendments shows. Let me move on to the temporary provisions Bill. The Minister will already...

Orders of the Day: Counter-Terrorism Bill (19 Nov 2008) has video

Damian Green: ..., West (Mr. Jones). There are practical examples from all over the country that show that the system is unacceptable and does not contribute to proper crime-fighting, let alone the fight against terrorism. Confidence in the system is reduced because of its arbitrary nature and inconsistency across the country. Too often, people simply do not understand the system because it is not...

Orders of the Day: Counter-Terrorism Bill (19 Nov 2008) has video

Damian Green: ...also like to commend some of the principles suggested by the pressure group Liberty on how we should balance human rights principles with the necessity for an effective fight against crime and terrorism. As well as advocating the overarching principle of the proportionate retention of DNA, which I strongly support, Liberty suggests that three further principles be taken into account: "The...

Orders of the Day: Counter-Terrorism Bill (19 Nov 2008)

Damian Green: ...illustrates one of the big failures of Government strategy throughout the passage of the Bill. The Home Secretary evidently believes that the tougher we sound, the more effective we are in fighting terrorism. The Conservatives believe that to fight terrorism successfully, we need precise, proportionate and effective legislation. That was the intention of the Lords amendment, and it is what...

Orders of the Day: Counter-Terrorism Bill (19 Nov 2008)

Damian Green: ...potential terrorist threats. I am happy to say that the amendment is designed to ensure that there would be absolutely no weakening of our defence, or the effectiveness of our defences, against terrorism. I cannot believe that that disturbs the hon. Gentleman, but if that is what he is worried about, so be it. We will have to part company.

Opposition Day — [19th Allotted Day]: Immigration Controls (21 Oct 2008) has video

Damian Green: ...—I have the quote here—is: "The... pace of change... in some areas has" resulted in migration becoming "the single greatest public concern in Britain, overtaking concerns on crime and terrorism." That is exactly right. It is precisely the pace of change that has got out of control under the hon. Lady's Government. We have had net immigration of just below 200,000 a year and it...

Opposition Day — [6th allotted day]: Human Trafficking (16 Jan 2008) has video

Damian Green: ...has been an absence of one on this matter. On Monday, my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes (Mr. Steen) asked "why human trafficking is not core police business". The Minister for Security, Counter-Terrorism, Crime and Policing replied: "It is."—[ Official Report, 14 January 2007; Vol. 470, c. 640.] This depends on how one defines core police business, because police forces are in...

Points of Order: Common European Asylum System (29 Nov 2007)

Damian Green: ...we all welcome, but also for those who use the asylum system that has been built up since the second world war as a disguise for economic migration or occasionally something worse, such as crime or terrorism. We all agree that asylum shopping is harmful and that sharing the burden of support for genuine refugees in Europe is sensible. Indeed, I would go further and suggest that sharing...

Public Bill Committee: UK Borders Bill: Clause 20 (15 Mar 2007)

Damian Green: ...areas of crime prevention. As the Home Office has seen, specialisation of police services is effective in fighting new types of crime. The criminals involved in people trafficking and international terrorism are becoming increasingly vicious and sophisticated, so we need a unified force to detect illegal immigration and prevent the misery of the trade in human beings and the entry into the...

Public Bill Committee: UK Borders Bill: Clause 16 (13 Mar 2007)

Damian Green: ...we are in danger of allowing through legislation that is wide open to function creep, that unpleasant phenomenon that we have mentioned in several debates. We have seen it happen: section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 was infamously used against Mr. Wolfgang, the 82-year-old heckler at a Labour party conference. I am sure that when Ministers passed that legislation, they did not intend to...

Public Bill Committee: UK Borders Bill: Clause 5 (8 Mar 2007)

Damian Green: I should like to amplify one point that the hon. Member for Rochdale just made. ID cards will not make us safer from terrorism. Of course, he is right: our parties agree. To be fair, after the July bombings, the previous Home Secretary pointed out that they would not have been prevented by ID cards. That was a fair point at a very difficult time. He was right to make it. I think, therefore,...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home: Terrorism Bill (13 Feb 2006)

Damian Green: ...the large and peaceful demonstration that we saw recently and the deplorable, less peaceful, smaller demonstration the week before. He must know that keeping minority communities united against terrorism is a vital weapon in the fight against terror, so how does he respond to Muslim leaders who support democratic values, such as Ajamal Masroor, of the Islamic Society of Britain, who says:...

Industry and the Environment (19 May 2005)

Damian Green: .... Climate change is one of the big issues for him—he has been known to declare that it is the biggest issue facing us. At other times, the biggest issue facing us can be education, Africa or terrorism. With all those issues, he is like a butterfly: he lands for a few seconds, flutters his rhetorical wings and is then away, leaving no imprint. The Prime Minister and therefore the...

Industry and the Environment (19 May 2005)

Damian Green: .... It was a bad Bill in the previous Session and it is a bad Bill now. It will impose huge costs on individuals and taxpayers, restrict personal freedom and prove ineffective in the fight against terrorism and benefit fraud. The more arguments I hear from the Home Secretary, the worse they get. People have said that we are heading towards an Orwellian society. Orwell should not be our...

Industry and the Environment (19 May 2005)

Damian Green: ...with which I take issue is the Prime Minister's comment about wasting hundreds of millions of pounds. Now he proposes to waste up to £10 billion on a system that is meant to protect us against terrorism but will not be operative until 2012 at the earliest. There is no argument for the Government's ID card scheme and I hope that hon. Members reject it. Like all Queen's Speeches, this...