Results 81–100 of 6300 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Lord Darling of Roulanish

Loans to Ireland Bill (Allocation of Time): Loans to Ireland Bill (15 Dec 2010)

Alistair Darling: The circumstances in which Ireland finds itself are complex, but there is no doubt that one problem is that a common interest rate right across Europe is perhaps inappropriate for an economy that is rapidly investing in an asset bubble. However, I do not have the same phobia about the euro that many Conservative Members still have, 20 years on.

Loans to Ireland Bill (Allocation of Time): Loans to Ireland Bill (15 Dec 2010)

Alistair Darling: Talking of which, I give way to the phobic-in-chief.

Loans to Ireland Bill (Allocation of Time): Loans to Ireland Bill (15 Dec 2010)

Alistair Darling: Yes, but as I said earlier, because of QMV, the deal would have gone through anyway. I also do not agree with the hon. Gentleman's analysis or that the legal position was that clear-cut.

Loans to Ireland Bill (Allocation of Time): Loans to Ireland Bill (15 Dec 2010)

Alistair Darling: No-I will not do so because of the time constraints. I agree with many hon. Members that Europe urgently needs a robust and workable rescue mechanism. We cannot wait until 2013, which brings me to my second main point. As I have said, I am concerned about the piecemeal way in which Europe as a whole, and the eurozone in particular, address the problems that they face. Even today, there is...

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: Financial Assistance (Ireland) (22 Nov 2010)

Alistair Darling: I agree with the Chancellor that he is absolutely right that it is in our country's interests that we do everything we can to help Ireland through its present difficulties. Although he and I agree that I was right to keep us out of the eurozone support fund, it is the case that some money coming from Europe is partly subscribed by us and also the IMF, but does that not demonstrate that it is...

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Redfern Inquiry (16 Nov 2010)

Alistair Darling: I add my thanks to Michael Redfern for his very substantial report, which is far weightier and far more extensive than we anticipated when I commissioned his work three and a half years ago. It is difficult to judge what happened over a period of 50 years-of course, standards, ethics and the law have changed very substantially-but does the Secretary of State accept two things? First, many...

Comprehensive Spending Review (28 Oct 2010)

Alistair Darling: I am grateful to the Chief Secretary for giving way. So far, he seems bereft of answers to any of the questions put to him. Does he agree with the Institute for Fiscal Studies' analysis that the June Budget and last week's spending review can be fair only if the Government include all the measures that I introduced in my Budget prior to the election?

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: UK National Debt (13 Jul 2010)

Alistair Darling: I am glad that the Chief Secretary at least accepts the proposition put by the hon. Member for Louth and Horncastle (Sir Peter Tapsell). We all agree that to get debt down, growth is essential. However, has the Chief Secretary noticed this morning's remarks by Geoffrey Dicks, a member of the Office for Budget Responsibility, who said that his office had cut its forecasts for growth by 0.5%...

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Topical Questions (13 Jul 2010)

Alistair Darling: Does the Chief Secretary, in the Chancellor's absence, agree that the independence and credibility of the OBR are absolutely paramount? Sir Alan Budd said to the Treasury Committee this morning that the numbers he released two weeks ago "were not an appropriate basis for attempting to estimate the effects of the June Budget on general government employment", and the Prime Minister was quite...

Capital Gains Tax (Rates) (23 Jun 2010)

Alistair Darling: Since the right hon. Gentleman referred directly to me and to advice and discussions that I may have had, let me say to him that there has never been any argument in the House about the fact that we needed to reduce borrowing. The discussion was always about when the reduction should start-before the election, he and I were on the same side on that-and about the extent to which, and the speed...

Capital Gains Tax (Rates) (23 Jun 2010)

Alistair Darling: I was just wondering what impression the Liberal Democrat poster about the Tory VAT bombshell was meant to give.

Capital Gains Tax (Rates) (23 Jun 2010)

Alistair Darling: I welcome the opportunity to open the second day's debate on the Budget. There are two tests to be applied to this Budget. The first is what it does to ensure that we can secure the recovery and get long-term sustainable growth, and therefore support jobs. The second is what it does in respect of fairness and, in that context, what it says about the promises made by the parties that now...

Capital Gains Tax (Rates) (23 Jun 2010)

Alistair Darling: I will give way to someone who is perhaps an unreconstructed member of the Liberal Democrats, especially one who represents a constituency in the north of Scotland that may be the subject of change because of his leader's determination to reduce the number of constituencies, particularly in his neck of the woods.

Capital Gains Tax (Rates) (23 Jun 2010)

Alistair Darling: The hon. Gentleman raises an interesting point. He is right that the right hon. Gentleman called for nationalisation at an early stage. The Chancellor, however, was dead against that. I imagine that if that situation arose now, the Chancellor's view would prevail and the Business Secretary would have to do what he is told. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that at the time I agreed with...

Capital Gains Tax (Rates) (23 Jun 2010)

Alistair Darling: The Conservatives did so because they thought it expedient, but at the end of 2008, they decided to change tack. In all we heard yesterday, the Chancellor did not explain why, if everything was going wrong and we were spending too much in the previous few years, he was quite happy to support such spending right up until the end of 2008.

Capital Gains Tax (Rates) (23 Jun 2010)

Alistair Darling: It is largely because we have a very large financial sector that contributed about 25% of all our corporation tax receipts. When the banking crisis hit, those receipts fell. There is something in the argument that has been advanced on both sides of the House in recent years-although, perhaps in retrospect, sadly not as much as it might have been over the past 30 years -that our economy has...

Capital Gains Tax (Rates) (23 Jun 2010)

Alistair Darling: My hon. Friend's point about Canada is an important one. Yes, Canada reduced its deficit quite dramatically. As a result of that country's provincial set-up, a lot of the action was taken by the provincial governments rather than the national Government. It was taken, however, off the back of a growing US economy. Given the relative size of the Canadian economy compared with the US economy-it...

Capital Gains Tax (Rates) (23 Jun 2010)

Alistair Darling: There is another difference, of course. Official unemployment in Spain is more than 20%. The Spanish construction industry is in dire straits. A lot of Spain's smaller banks, which are heavily tied to that industry, are finding things difficult. There is a world of difference between the Spanish economy and our own, just as there is a world of difference between the Greek economy and our own....

Capital Gains Tax (Rates) (23 Jun 2010)

Alistair Darling: The hon. Gentleman was not here in the last Parliament, but I was asked that on numerous occasions. No Government can ever eradicate economic cycles. They have been around for years, and I expect that the current Government will find that they will be around for years as well. What I would say to the hon. Gentleman is this. Just before we went into this crisis, we had the second lowest debt...

Capital Gains Tax (Rates) (23 Jun 2010)

Alistair Darling: No, I am going to make some progress. The current context is a fragile recovery, with growth in Europe sluggish. Crucially, however, we cannot assume, as the Government seem to, that it is axiomatic that if we cut back on public expenditure, the private sector will come in and take its place. That is not guaranteed at all. We have seen that in Japan and other countries. Indeed, the private...


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