Iain Duncan Smith: ...had just entered Parliament, and I was faced with the choice of whether to vote for what I saw as a huge extension of powers from what became the European Union. I made the mistake of entering the Smoking Room, where my hon. Friend the Member for Stone laid his arm upon my shoulder, and my career was ruined thereafter. I chose directly as a result of those blandishments to vote against...
Iain Duncan Smith: ...have absolutely no idea what they will do. They do not have the money, they are losing interest in the very policy that they said was at the heart of their policies and the rest has just become smoke and mirrors. It is as simple as that. There we have it: the cobbled-together nonsense of Labour’s jobs guarantee is destined to fail as wholly unfunded. Yet we should not be surprised by...
Iain Duncan Smith: ...him—Keir Hardie roll over. Asked whether he saw himself as old or new Labour, he endearingly described himself as Xslightly shop-soiled Labour". He has campaigned to ban many things, including smoking and proportional representation—but not drinking—and even once introduced a Bill to ban space invaders. Perhaps he was thinking of the right hon. Member for Hartlepool (Mr. Mandelson),...
Iain Duncan Smith: ...than people realise. The Washington conference, which is often claimed to show what America believes about the process, could have dealt with such matters, but it did not. It became a case of smoke and mirrors—a way in which to deceive the participants into believing that there was nothing to worry about. Undertakings were given but never met. Obligations were talked about but not...
Iain Duncan Smith: ...for them and of the stuff that they do. I return to the issues surrounding the budget. I wish the Secretary of State would just tell the truth about the settlement, rather than presenting it with smoke and mirrors, as is so typical of this Government. He knows very well that this is not the first real-terms increase in the defence budget in the past 15 years. I checked with the Library,...
Iain Duncan Smith: ...during the case the prosecutor simply allowed that to be referred to as a matter of a few days. When the accused stated that when they left the pub, the victim was still sitting happily on a chair smoking, that apparently was not challenged although, according to all the witness statements, at that stage Matthew Hockley was already dead, or very seriously wounded, and the individuals were...
Iain Duncan Smith: The right hon. Gentleman cannot get away with that. The reality is that the Government have failed to commit themselves never to means-test the basic state pension or to wind it into any basic means-tested income. It is sophistry on the Government's part—smoke and mirrors.
Iain Duncan Smith: ...–01. Now we discover that the Chancellor is busy trying to hide £5 billion a year from the welfare bill by changing the way in which he accounts for the annual cost of the WFTC. By a process of smoke and mirrors, he intends to try to slide that money under the heading of accounting adjustments. Everyone knows that that is an outrageous attempt to pretend that he has reduced the cost of...
Iain Duncan Smith: ...the Member for Hitchin and Harpenden (Mr. Lilley) made clear in yesterday's debate that Tuesday's Budget amounted to a series of broken pledges. It seemed to have been conducted by a system of smoke and mirrors; there was little detail as the Chancellor glided over some of the more complex changes, preferring to say little and suggest a great deal. As the Chancellor kept repeating,...
Iain Duncan Smith: ...very much in keeping with the behaviour of her colleague, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, who was not present during a huge debate on beef on the bone and spent his time in the Smoking Room. If I did not know about the Secretary of State's habits, I would, perhaps, ask my colleagues to check the Smoking Room to ensure that she is not also there. I gather that the Secretary...