Philip Davies: May we have a debate on how the honours list is determined? Mr Peter Smith, the Tour de France project co-ordinator for Leeds council, was awarded an MBE in the new year's honours list, which was, I am sure, well-merited, but does that not go to show what a glaring omission it was that Gary Verity, who brought the Tour de France to Yorkshire, was ignored? In that debate we can perhaps show...
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: ...the German Nazis did during the war. As long as we understand that, we will all appreciate which way we should go forward. Relations between Ukraine and Russia obviously remain tense, and that is a concern for the UK and the wider world. It is encouraging that the situation seems to have improved in the past few days, but there are still reasons to be extremely worried about the stability...
Kerry McCarthy: ..., and grateful to the right hon. Member for Croydon South (Sir Richard Ottaway) for making the application for the debate under Standing Order No. 24. As we have heard, the House is united in its concern—indeed, its unhappiness—that the Foreign Affairs Committee has been prevented from visiting Hong Kong. We have also heard that the hon. Member for Gloucester (Richard Graham) was...
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports he has received of bilateral co-operation between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Islamic Republic of Iran in the field of nuclear weapons technology.
Hugo Swire: I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester (Richard Graham) on securing the debate. I do not call him my hon. Friend just as a courtesy; he was my excellent Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office until recently, and I pay tribute to his valuable work, his deep personal interest and his well-informed advice to me on Hong Kong and China over the...
Lord Taylor of Holbeach: My Lords, with the leave of the House, I will now repeat a Statement made in the House of Commons earlier this afternoon by my right honourable friend Theresa May, the Home Secretary. “With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to make a Statement about the sexual abuse of children, allegations that evidence of the sexual abuse of children was suppressed by people in positions of power, and...
Theresa May: ...children, allegations that evidence of the sexual abuse of children was suppressed by people in positions of power, and the Government’s intended response. I want to address two important public concerns: first, that in the 1980s the Home Office failed to act on allegations of child sex abuse; and, secondly, that public bodies and other important institutions have failed to take...
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: I commend my right hon. Friend on having a discussion with President Obama about the serious terrorism threat posed by Boko Haram in north-east Nigeria. Does he agree that the tragedy of the kidnapped girls should be resolved and that the front-line states of the United States, France and ourselves should co-operate further, because the terrorism threat to Nigeria threatens the whole...
Lord Grenfell: My Lords, I am sorry to miss out on that viscountcy, but a barony gets you quite far in Paris, anyway—at least these days it is not to the guillotine. When I was studying modern languages at King’s, Cambridge, some 58 years ago, I struggled through the plays of a 19th-century Viennese dramatist and poet called Franz Grillparzer. That is not an exercise that I would recommend to any...
Guy Opperman: ...and to my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh) that they are addressing and supporting this issue in the House. Gender equality is a basic right, and it does not need any economic justification. We can provide an economic justification for it, but we should not even need to go there. It is a harsh fact that women across the world continue to face daily abuse and...
Geoffrey Robinson: If I could take us all back to the situation in Coventry—we could argue indefinitely about local finance and about the Government’s economic policy—I wanted to raise one other point, and apologise to the Minister for not having mentioned it before. I will write to her about, and hope that she will take note of, another issue arising directly from the cuts in Coventry, concerning the...
Jacob Rees-Mogg: I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I would say it was analogous to an election court, where, if election fraud or misbehaviour during a general election was shown, a court would determine whether the seat had been won in a valid manner, because it is a second degree from the court’s action. The court’s action, or the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council’s action, would be to remove the...
Geoffrey Robinson: ...these matters, as are other hon. Members, perhaps much more than I am. I am brought here as a result of a terrible and harrowing case, which has recently shocked the whole nation—the death in Coventry of Daniel Pelka. His parents, now both serving life sentences, having been convicted of murder, were living in my constituency. Let me make it clear to all my hon. Friends, two of whom I...
Mark Francois: The recipients of the Polar medal are kept in the Polar Medal Roll, which is updated annually. Copies are held by: The Deputy Ceremonial Officer, Ceremonial Branch, Cabinet Office; The Polar Regions Unit, Overseas Territories Department, Foreign and Commonwealth Office; The National Hydrographer; The Keeper of Public Records; and The Assistant Secretary Central Chancery of the Orders of...
Anna Soubry: It is a pleasure, Mr Caton, to serve under your chairmanship. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for The Cotswolds (Geoffrey Clifton-Brown) on securing this debate on a subject of which he clearly has considerable knowledge. I thank other hon. Members who have spoken, and pay tribute to the work done by Empower: Access to Medicine, particularly that of Mr Les Halpin, who has been...
Baroness Campbell of Surbiton: ...to the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley, for securing this debate. We have worked together for many, many years, and I am afraid that I am another usual suspect. The integration of social care is a complex nut to crack. I am sure that Ministers with responsibility for health, both acute and primary, local government, housing, and work and pensions will also wish to pay attention to what is...
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) whether he plans to raise the human rights situation in Belarus with his EU counterparts at the Permanent Council of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe; (2) what recent representations he has made to the Belarusian Government on the human rights situation in Belarus; and if he will make a...
Baroness Masham of Ilton: My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Ford, for asking this important Question. There are an incredible number of neurological conditions, some very rare, all of which are important to the individual. I have a niece who has epilepsy and I know how important continuity of good-quality care is. I stress the importance of specialist nurses for conditions such as epilepsy, Parkinson's...
Hywel Williams: ...interest as a member of the all-party group on social work. Before I was elected, I was for a short time an approved social worker under the Mental Health Act 1983. I was also a member of the Joint Committee that looked at mental health legislation before the passage of the National Health Service Act 2006. As far as I remember, the issue was not addressed that winter when we looked at the...
Lord Norton of Louth: My Lords, there is a problem of trust in the process of registering and voting. I believe we should privilege the integrity of the ballot over convenience. We have leaned a little too far in recent years towards convenience. I therefore welcome the Bill-it is a step in the right direction. However, I very much agree with my noble friend Lord Rennard that we should aim for a full as well as an...