🗣️ Speeches and Debates
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My Lords, most of us agree that economic growth is critical. I am very pleased to see that it is on the board, as it is one of the best topics that we are discussing in this response to the gracious Speech. Growth widens the choices that are available for Governments. It increases the scope for making those choices and the trade-offs that Governments are forced to make. As we know, higher...
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My Lords, I have listened closely to the Minister and I have had several conversations with the Front-Bench team. I remain very disappointed with the determination to go back towards the 1945 arrangements. I fear that, unless we can make further progress and improve how this Bill works in practice, in time it will end badly; I cannot believe that it has a great shelf life. I was involved in...
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My Lords, I will speak to Motion D1. In recent years, there has been an extraordinary and significant interest in what has become known as choice architecture. This was popularised by the book Nudge and by one of its authors, Richard Thaler, who received the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2017, partly for his work on it. One key point which is so relevant to the issues I have been raising is...
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My Lords, from my perspective, the Budget has been received about as well as could have been expected in the circumstances. It also seems to have satisfied the bond markets and the Government’s own Back-Benchers, which is no small feat. It has been clear for months that the background was going to be challenging, given the slow growth evident across the industrial world, and this has left...
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I wish to test the opinion of the House. Ayes 302, Noes 135.
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My Lords, I support Motion E1. As the Minister has set out, the Government wish to go back to an arrangement where all new members automatically pay the contribution to the union’s political fund unless they take the initiative of opting out. My own view is that it should be equally easy for a person to choose to contribute or not to contribute to the political fund at the point of applying...
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I thank the Minister for his response. I am disappointed but not entirely surprised. I can assure the Minister that I have no objection to how political funds are used. When the whole notion of political funds was established, it was clearly for the support of political parties—that was what the debate was back in 1910 and 1920 and that is not the issue at heart. The issue is how people...
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My Lords, in July, this House agreed my amendment on trade union political funds with a large majority. The amendment would maintain a position where new members have to opt in to make a contribution to a union’s political fund. This was debated in the House of Commons and rejected. I have had a conversation with the Minister and the Deputy Leader of the House about this, for which I am...
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