Results 101–120 of 380 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 Saatchi

Convention on the Future of Europe ( 2 Apr 2003)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords, that was not my intention, but I am glad that the point has been made.

European Union: Fraud ( 2 Apr 2003)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords, why did the EU pay out subsidies in Austria for 60 per cent more alpine pastures than exist? How did it manage to pay 2.5 billion euros to olive oil producers in Greece last year, despite the fact that there is no register of olive oil producers in that country?

Markets ( 3 Mar 2003)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords, is not one of the most attractive aspects of the party opposite its belief in universal provision free at the point of use? Is it not a sad end of that romantic dream that now the Government intend to charge people for public services as well as taxing them? Does the Minister appreciate the scale of public disquiet about what that means—as in these findings: 37 per cent of people...

Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Bill (25 Feb 2003)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords, this is a truly unusual parliamentary occasion because I can find nothing in the speech of the Minister with which I could possibly disagree. I would have been happy to have delivered the speech myself . I begin by echoing the Minister's sentiments about the value of the rewrite process in improving the intelligibility of tax legislation and I join him in his praise for the light...

Debt (17 Feb 2003)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords, when was the last time the Chancellor of the Exchequer used the phrase, "the end of boom and bust"?

Private Finance Initiatives (12 Feb 2003)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords, will the Minister be offended if I suggest to him that the private finance initiative is being expanded because it provides a very useful device by which the Government can hide the true extent of government debt? Is not the Government's motive for doing that that public borrowing is out of control, and, as a result, the budget deficit is too high? Does he accept that, if the...

Acts of Parliament: Internet Publication (10 Feb 2003)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords, Acts of Parliament and their associated Hansards should be published on the Internet. But what happens if the relevant Hansard is incorrect? That happened recently with regard to a Treasury matter when the noble Lord, Lord McIntosh, wrote to Members of your Lordships' House to correct a statement he had made at the Dispatch Box. However, that letter has been seen only by a handful...

Inland Revenue: Interest Rates (27 Jan 2003)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords, is it any wonder that we have this merry-go-round of over and underpayments of tax when just one branch of Her Majesty's Government now generates 1,185 pages of claim forms relating to taxable benefits, non-taxable benefits, allowances, credits, reliefs, tapers, disregards—an endless list of paper?

Terrorism Insurance (22 Jan 2003)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords, is it not undesirable in principle for there to be two Acts of Parliament on the statute book with two different definitions of terrorism? Will the Minister say a little more about the Government's reluctance to bring the definition in the 1993 Act into line with the definition in the Terrorism Act 2000, which includes references to religious and ideological causes, threats and...

Congestion Charges (15 Jan 2003)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords—

Congestion Charges (15 Jan 2003)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords, may I offer the Minister a constructive suggestion from the Official Opposition? Will he have a look at Hamlet's soliloquy, "To be or not to be", and its despair at the corruption in the court of the King of Denmark? Shakespeare has a striking phrase for the abuse of power by those on high—he calls it the insolence of office. Is that not a fitting description of Ministers who...

Public Services (15 Jan 2003)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords, this is one of those special parliamentary occasions when a Minister comes to the Dispatch Box and clears up one of the great mysteries of the age. What we all want to know is how the Government have achieved a modern miracle—to raise billions of pounds in extra tax, spend it, and produce results which are invisible to the naked eye. Perhaps I may offer the noble Lord an...

Equity Release Schemes (14 Jan 2003)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords, is it not right that in the good old days, when people called a spade a spade, home equity release plans were known by their true name—that is, second mortgages—and seen as a rather dangerous way of raising money? Since then, have not the Government taught people the lesson that if you change the name of a product you can make it appear much less harmful? That is why the...

Tax Self-Assessment (13 Jan 2003)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords, speaking of those who can least afford it being penalised, will the Minister confirm that the self-assessment system is enabling the Government to extract £3 billion a year in income tax from people living below the Government's official poverty line?

Financial Services Authority (17 Dec 2002)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords, does the Minister mind the following summary of his answers? Yesterday, he said that the Government would not conform with generally accepted accounting principles and today he says that the Government will not conform with generally accepted governnance principles. That is not a model of compliance, is it?

Network Rail: Debt (16 Dec 2002)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords, I believe we just heard the Minister say that such debts were excluded from the national accounts because they are "contingent liabilities", not definite liabilities. May I therefore take him back to our debate on the Pre-Budget Report, on 27th November, when he said (at col. 782 of Hansard) that "all contingent liabilities"—of which this is one—"over £100,000 are declared" in...

Budget Report (10 Dec 2002)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister and to the usual channels for allowing what is usually a formality to be the occasion for a full debate in your Lordships' House. As the Minister said, the Motion invites noble Lords to note "with approval" the national accounts as set out in the Pre-Budget Report. Looking at the most distinguished list of speakers—which is another tribute to the...

Budget Report (10 Dec 2002)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords, I am aware of both points. My comments are not on the validity of PFI as a method of building roads and schools, but on the validity of the Government's accounting method. In Kenneth Clarke's last Red Book, in 1996, the value of PFI contracts amounted to £10 billion. The Government have expanded that figure from £10 billion to £100 billion in five years. That is precisely the...

Budget Report (10 Dec 2002)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords, that point is the main thrust of my speech, and I shall deal with it in more detail later. In a few words, however, that stream of liabilities and obligations to pay under PFI should be included on the face of the Government's balance sheet as government debt. PFI is the first form of invisible borrowing. The second form works as follows. Imagining ourselves in the Government's...

Euro: Price Convergence ( 4 Dec 2002)

Lord Saatchi: My Lords, was not one of the benefits of the euro said to be that the greater transparency offered would lead to more common standard prices across Europe? The reason I ask is that if, around the euro-zone, one took a taxi to the airport where one bought a book and had a cup of coffee, the taxi fare per kilometre would cost 3 euros in Brussels and 1 euro in Stockholm; a top-10 paperback would...


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