Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, I can certainly speak another language: my home is in France, so I can tell the noble Lord that all is not lost. I start by saying that I warmly welcome the Bill and warmly commend the Prime Minister for saying clearly that fundamental reform of the European Union is needed. So far, it is not entirely clear what reforms he has in mind. Perhaps my noble friend will tell us in her...
Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, I know that the House wishes to reach a conclusion, so I will speak briefly. The question is: what are we debating? According to my noble friend Lord True, it is merely the internal arrangements of the House of Commons. According to most noble Lords, it is a major constitutional issue. I believe without any doubt that the second interpretation is correct and my noble friend is...
Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, when I became Financial Secretary to the Treasury in 1979, this was one of my delegated responsibilities under Chancellor Geoffrey Howe, and I thought that it was absolutely ridiculous to waste all this time on all this nonsense. I am glad to say that I was successful in persuading the present Lord Howe that this system should be changed and we should just cut the Foreign Office...
Lord Lawson of Blaby: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many staff there were in the Prime Minister's office for each Prime Minister over the last 30 years.
Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, we are fortunate in this House in having a Treasury Minister of exceptional financial expertise and understanding. He will be well aware that Greece should never have entered the eurozone in the first place. He will also be well aware that there is no solution to the Greek problem without a substantial write-off of Greek debt—what the noble Lord, Lord Davies, referred to somewhat...
Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, can my noble friend explain to the spokesman for the Opposition that the fact that the Labour Government grossly overpaid for a bombed-out bank with shares that were virtually worthless should be a matter of shame to him and should not inhibit the Government from doing what is the right thing to do?
Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, is it not clear that the Greek disaster is simply the most acute evidence of the fact that the European monetary union was, from the start, a fundamentally flawed enterprise, as a number of us predicted and explained very clearly at the time? Is not the best thing that we can do now to persuade our friends in the eurozone to enable Greece to exit from the eurozone in the most...
Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, by what date do the Government expect renewables to be cost-competitive so that hard-working families and businesses will no longer have to subsidise wealthy landlords and other green investors?
Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, I echo the welcome from the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, from this side of the House. In his reply the Minister referred to the Climate Change Act, which unilaterally imposes limits on carbon emissions for the United Kingdom. I am well aware that the Government wish to secure a legally binding global agreement on emission limitations at the United Nations Paris conference at the end of...
Lord Lawson of Blaby: I hope the noble and learned Lord, Lord Woolf, will forgive me if I do not follow up his remarks on the important issue of human rights, because we have limited time and I would like to focus on the issue of Scotland. The noble Lord, Lord Dunlop, made an excellent maiden speech. As the responsible Minister, he has a hard road to hoe in our debates on this issue, as he will increasingly...
Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords—
Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, I quite agree with the Statement where it says that a disorderly Greek exit from the eurozone is in nobody’s interest. Clearly, it is an orderly exit that is desirable. However, I should like to revert to what my noble friend Lord Howell said about energy policy. This is very important. Is my noble friend the Leader of the House aware that over the past few years a great battle...
Lord Lawson of Blaby: It is the turn of this side. Given that there is agreement—
Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, given the agreement on all sides of this House, and indeed more widely, on the desirability of boosting the development of the economy of the north of England, and given that American experience suggests strongly that the greatest single contributor to that could be the successful development of the Bowland shale in the north-west, is it not deplorable that Labour-led Lancashire...
Lord Lawson of Blaby: I am grateful to my noble friend for giving way. The question of creating a new quango does not arise if the Government are prepared to accept the amendment proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Hollick, because ICAI already exists. There would be no new quango. There would be if the Michael Moore proposal incorporated in my amendment was agreed, that is true, but not if it is ICAI. My noble...
Lord Lawson of Blaby: If my noble friend will allow me—
Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords—
Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, I shall speak mainly to my Amendment 24, which is grouped with the amendment that has just been proposed so ably by the noble Lord, Lord Hollick. However, I shall first say a few words about his amendment, for which a very strong case can be made. The Economic Affairs Committee of this House took evidence from representatives of the Independent Commission on Aid Impact, and I am...
Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, I listened very carefully to what the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, the promoter of this Bill in this House, has said, as well as to my noble friend the Minister, who is no longer in her place. I have to say that neither of them went anywhere near addressing the points that I made. I am glad to see that my noble friend the Minister is now back to grace us with her presence and hear what...
Lord Lawson of Blaby: My Lords, when the noble Lord, Lord Butler, introduced his excellent amendment, he prefaced it by saying that he was strongly in favour of the 0.7% target. I will preface my brief remarks by saying that I am not in favour of the 0.7% target and that I am not alone. In an earlier debate, one noble Lord mentioned the role of Select Committees in all this. The only Select Committee of your...
