This is a difficult and somewhat moving moment in which to give a final speech in Parliament, made impossible by the need to compress 38 years of thoughts into five minutes of gabble. I realised that it was time for me to go when I found that, although I was still able to ask smart questions in the Public Accounts Committee, I was totally unable to hear the answers. That made it difficult to...
Unfortunately, I forgot to mention the Yorkshire Post, which is Yorkshire’s national newspaper, so I would like the Minister to include it in his roll of honour.
It is a pleasure to stand here as the chair of the NUJ parliamentary group, but to crack a Ken Dodd joke, it is a pleasure to be standing anywhere at my age. I am delighted to support the secretary of the group, my hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell), in his efforts today. He has given us a litany of decline that is striking in its impact. It has hit journalists...
I shall be coming to my comments on the BBC very shortly. I apologise for not responding immediately to my hon. Friend’s question. I have to have a translator, not to translate things from English into Yorkshire dialect, but because I am stone deaf. I was going to argue that there are more cheering points. Grimsby and north-east Lincolnshire, because it is a real community—unlike most...
There are alternative ways for the BBC to help out the newspapers financially. It now observes a requirement to buy stories from the local television stations—indeed, it has begun to buy stories from Estuary TV in my constituency. That is a good thing. There is no reason why the BBC should not buy stories from local newspaper journalists, provided that the money goes to the journalists, not...
Yes. That is the argument. It must be an additional subsidy. I must admit that when I was a television journalist, my first recourse was to steal stories from the local newspapers. There is no reason why such stories should not be developed and sold by local newspapers. We have had too great a website imperialism by the BBC. It might provide competition, but it is also taking viewers, readers...
I will not follow the hon. Member for Braintree (Mr Newmark) into his fantasy world; the Government seem to be in danger of moving into a fantasy world where it is as if all the nation’s problems have been solved by the miraculous efforts of this Chancellor. The Budget seemed to me to be a matter of the Government moving furniture around a room in which they have just had four years of a...
Will the Minister tell us what is happening about the Tomlinson report, which is a review of a series of very similar cases to this one, but concerning RBS? That demands action, too.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to create more affordable housing in London.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 6 January 2015 to Question 219924, what the nature of the launch anomaly was; and what the result of the full inquiry was.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2014, Official Report, column 213W, on the Galileo system, what the cost was to January 2014; and what proportion of that cost has been paid by the UK.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of raising the basic state pension by (a) 10, (b) 15 and (c) 20 per cent.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, which parties have been given access by his Department to the Sandstorm Report associated with the closure of The Bank of Credit and Commerce International.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish in full Lord Justice Bingham's report, Inquiry into the Supervision of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, on the closure of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, completed in 1992.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the legal costs and fines recovered from (a) PricewaterhouseCoopers, (b) KPMG, (c) Ernst & Young and (d) Deloitte after tax courts and tribunals have rejected tax avoidance schemes designed by those firms in each of the last five years.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will appoint an independent commission to investigate claims about the roles of PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Ernst & Young and Deloitte in designing, selling and implementing tax avoidance schemes.
