Kali Mountford: May I pay my own personal tribute to all the officers we have lost and give my condolences to their families? I am sure we miss them all. May I ask the Prime Minister why, in his view, fairness should be the hallmark of a good Government?
Kali Mountford: I have been a Member in this House for a little while now, and during that time I have discussed demographic change on many occasions. The hon. Member for Eastbourne (Mr. Waterson) has been in the Chamber for some of those debates, and we have had several exchanges about the need to look ahead at what we must do for people in the future. It is therefore a little remiss to have forgotten...
Kali Mountford: I shall do my best to sit down, if the hon. Gentleman will give me a moment to do so.
Kali Mountford: I understand exactly what the hon. Gentleman is saying, but I have read the Green Paper and I feel that the Government are making three interesting proposals. It is right for us to debate the new proposals and see what we can do to change the situation that he describes. The people in the cases in my postbag have been receiving NHS care, so that situation has not arisen because such care is...
Kali Mountford: Thank you, Mr. Speaker—thank you, dear friend. I particularly wanted to be here today. Having been here from the beginning—with some difficulty, I might add—I wanted to see this particular part of your career all the way through to the end. I wanted to be here because, right at the beginning of this part of your career, many people said that you were not the best Speaker for this House....
Kali Mountford: In congratulating my right hon. Friend on his statement, may I say that it is part of an evolving process over some years whereby the Government have concentrated their efforts on those who are completely isolated from the world of work, who have become used to dependence on benefits, and who have perhaps become comfortable in poverty, which is not a position that we should be satisfied for...
Kali Mountford: When we considered this matter in Committee, we were given some evidence by Sir Ian Blair of a growing threat. I am concerned, as I hope my hon. Friend is, that if we should decide at some point that we would need an extension of the time in which to examine evidence concerning somebody who is suspected of committing a terrorist attack on this country, that should not happen in a heated...
Kali Mountford: I am sure that my right hon. Friend will have been impressed by the incredible courage of Adrian Sudbury, who is using the last weeks of his life to campaign for more bone marrow donors to come forward. I have been impressed by the response so far of the Secretaries of State for Children, Schools and Families and for Health, but what more can my right hon. Friend do to help my friend Adrian...
Kali Mountford: I preface my remarks by declaring two interests. The first is that I am a member of the advisory panel on Members' allowances, and the second is that I employ my husband. From the first day I started to employ him, that fact has appeared in my election address. When the fury about the employment of Members' families broke out, I had only one communication about it. That came from someone who...
Kali Mountford: Many Members with this concern will be comforted by that helpful response. When I asked members of the Committee about the issue, I was told that Members would have time to review their position. I asked over and over again what was meant by a review and I was told, "You'll have time to get your house in order." When I asked whether I could take this particular element out of the job...
Kali Mountford: rose—
Kali Mountford: I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for giving way on that very point. Will he warn people—especially people such as Nicola Turner, the Liberal Democrat councillor in my area—to be careful not simply to stick a pin in the map and simplistically say, "I'm putting a circle of three miles around each post office," before coming up with a figure for how many post offices will be closed? If...
Kali Mountford: Thanks to the magnificent work of Kirklees primary care trust, health services have been transformed in my area. The shadow Health Minister predicted that accident and emergency would be closed by now. Instead, millions of pounds are being spent in community health and mental health services. Will my right hon. Friend give me an assurance that success will continue to be rewarded and that...
Kali Mountford: I know that my right hon. Friend is aware that communities in my constituency are keen for changes to be made so that they can have energy from renewable sources; they want to have a sustainable community and then to sell energy back to the national grid. However, they feel that they are stymied by current regulations. What comfort can they be given that those obstacles can be removed and...
Kali Mountford: Before my right hon. Friend moves on from the subject of women in low-paid work or without work at all, may I ask him whether he has had the chance to consider women who have more than one low-paid job? Each job might pay less than the national insurance level, but collectively the jobs might pay enough for the national insurance stamp. If such women had the opportunity, they might pay the...
Kali Mountford: Thank you for calling me so early in the debate, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I apologise to the House for having other business that will call me away, but I shall endeavour to return as quickly as possible, as this is an important debate and I want to be a part of as much of it as I can. I want to distil the important issues on which we need to focus from among those that the Opposition are tempted...
Kali Mountford: Absolutely not at all. That is a gross misunderstanding of what was being said. If someone has taken an action, as that junior official clearly did, it is one thing to understand that action, but to blame that person for it is quite another—
Kali Mountford: The hon. Gentleman needs to wait for the inquiry. Why did that junior official take that action when, in the light of the procedures that should have been followed, it clearly should not have been taken?
Kali Mountford: The hon. Gentleman must calm down, stay in his seat and think about what I am trying to say. There is a set of procedures; why were they not followed? If there are pressures in the department, why did that person not follow the procedures? Which level of senior managers did not ensure that those procedures were properly followed? What breakdown took place that resulted in those procedures not...
Kali Mountford: My hon. Friend brings me to my next point. As a former civil servant, and as a former member of the CPSA union who represented members of the department that he has mentioned, I can tell the House that they are grand people. To suggest that they could be in any way accountable for this mistake would be wrong. The Government have made decisions to increase the level of child benefit and to...