Kwasi Kwarteng: I am very grateful to my right hon. Friend for his answer. What role does he envisage for the Security Council in the ongoing crisis in Syria?
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Kwasi Kwarteng: Will my hon. Friend outline just how uncompetitive the 50p rate was compared with the rates of other G20 countries?
Kwasi Kwarteng: To what extent does the Minister believe that having the top rate of tax in the G20 helps British competitiveness?
Kwasi Kwarteng: I am sure the hon. Gentleman appreciates that aviation is vital not only to this country, but to the community he represents, and certainly to the community I represent. I therefore want to understand the drift of his comments. Is he saying that BAA should cease to operate and that Heathrow should shut down? What exactly is he proposing?
Kwasi Kwarteng: What assessment has my right hon. Friend made of France’s deficit reduction plan?
Kwasi Kwarteng: I am listening with great attention and fascination to my hon. Friend’s speech, but he has not addressed a very pertinent point raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Orpington (Joseph Johnson): at present we do not have access, or cannot fly directly, to those cities in China. I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Rochester and Strood (Mark Reckless) will come to that in his speech,...
Kwasi Kwarteng: I am trying to work through the maze of complicated arguments that my hon. Friend is presenting, but I have just a simple question. Does he believe that the United Kingdom as a whole needs more aviation capacity?
Kwasi Kwarteng: Is my hon. Friend seriously suggesting that the key to our aviation problems is ripping up the treaty of Rome?
Kwasi Kwarteng: Is there not a danger that this whole process will create a media circus of the kind we see in the United States, and undermine the man or woman appointed as Governor before they even take up their position?
Kwasi Kwarteng: The contrast with the United States of America is very interesting, but surely the point is that Congress in America has jurisdictional right of veto over a whole range of appointments. That does not apply to this House, so to focus simply on the appointment of the Governor of the Bank of England without considering other appointments seems to be slightly bizarre, if that is the development...
Kwasi Kwarteng: What does my hon. Friend think about the lengthy process for Supreme Court appointments in America, where people very often wait for months before an appointment is made? What might be the repercussions for our financial position in such an instance?
Kwasi Kwarteng: I want to hear my hon. Friend’s view on my suspicion that constituents simply want the Bank of England to do its job and do not want the process to be politicised any more than it needs to be. A move towards a Treasury Committee veto would make it more political and less appealing to the very constituents to whom he has referred.
Kwasi Kwarteng: The hon. Gentleman talks about modest amendments, but what is his view of the Bill before us and the large constitutional change that it embodies?
Kwasi Kwarteng: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Kwasi Kwarteng: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Kwasi Kwarteng: Does my hon. Friend not agree that the plan for an eight-year fixed term is a much better safeguard for independence, and for the ability of the Governor to do his or her will and act according to his or her abilities, than the Bill’s proposal to make the appointment contingent on the will of the Treasury Committee?
Kwasi Kwarteng: Does my hon. Friend think that the Bill would give the Select Committee enormous powers that are totally incommensurate with its constitutional functions in this House?