🗣️ Speeches and Debates
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My Lords, before I make my remarks, I must declare a pecuniary interest in the Green Investment Bank, as set out in the register of interests. I am its chair, appointed by the then Business Secretary on its creation in 2012, and subsequently reappointed earlier this year by the current Business Secretary. Despite that interest, I hope that my position both as chair and as a Cross-Bencher...
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My Lords, in the run-up to the Scottish independence referendum, the leaders of the UK’s main parties made a series of commitments about further powers for the Scottish Parliament. I was asked to chair political talks to agree the detail of what those powers should be. These talks led to an unprecedented agreement among Scotland’s five main parties. That agreement has now been translated...
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What actually happened was that he signed up to every single word in that agreement. Immediately afterwards, as a lifelong nationalist, he said that he would always want much greater powers—and, indeed, independence. That was probably what he was going to say when he entered in—but they did not leave the table, and they signed up to every word in the agreement. The agreement was published...
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The principle is very simple. We established the principle that there should be two areas where there should not be detriment. In the second area, as I am sure the noble Lord is aware from his time working on budgets for Scotland, there is a very complex calculation even now, without these new powers, under the Barnett formula, whereby averages and so on are looked at. The noble Lord, Lord...
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My Lords, I declare two interests. First, I am chairman of Scottish and Southern Energy, which is the biggest generator of renewable energy in the UK. Secondly, I chair the Green Investment Bank, which has just been mentioned. I can confirm the statement of the noble Lord, Lord Marland, that we are up and running. We have state aid approval. We have been charged with five priority areas:...
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My Lords, standing here in this Chamber, it is impossible not to be struck by a great sense of history. I hope that I am not about to create history of my own by being the first maiden speaker to be booed. Noble Lords will understand my concern: I began life as an accountant; I moved into banking; I was in private equity; I moved into fund management, although not pyramid schemes; and I am...
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