Did you mean due gaulle?
Stewart Jackson: The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies disagrees profoundly with the hon. Gentleman, and believes that the proposals are both morally and financially right and progressive. The hon. Gentleman will therefore have to try again later. I support the planning regime reforms and the liberalisation of the national planning policy framework. I was delighted to hear about the regional policy and...
Robert Syms: First, I draw Members’ attention to my directorship and shareholding in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. We have to understand that the coalition Government inherited an extremely difficult situation, with a massive deficit. The situation cannot be dealt with in one or two years; we are talking about a process over several years to get the public finances into reasonable...
Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, if one purpose of this debate is to call out the Government on aviation policy, the kind of question that the noble Lord, Lord Spicer, has just asked certainly does that, as indeed do the speech and the Bill of the noble Lord, Lord Empey. In his excellent speech, he made a powerful case for the obvious significance of adequate transport links for regional policy. Crucially, for...
Pat Glass: ...Glasgow South said, had the amendment been in place when bmi pulled out of its slots for flights between Heathrow and Durham Tees Valley airport, the CAA could have insisted that bmi was still under an obligation to fly that route. It might then not have pulled out, or certainly not without consultation. When a big player pulls out of a small regional airport and uses its slots at Heathrow...
Graham Stringer: ...of transferring security, is the relationship of the changes to an outcomes-focused, risk-based security system. Before I get on to that, I refer to the Committee to yesterday’s statement by the Department for Transport on security, which included a quote on the costs to industry: “We have estimated that the ongoing cost to the CAA of its new security’s functions would be £4.8m per...
Graham Stringer: That is a different and significant point about how a full market solution might work. We are only partly there, but I understand what the hon. Gentleman says. It is a powerful point. The hon. Member for Amber Valley shared, I think, my scepticism about the interventions that the CAA might make. Maybe it was a trite debating point, but it shows the power that the CAA could have if it were to...
Graham Stringer: ...person or someone going on holiday from this country, wants to go on an intercontinental journey—to India, China, Brazil or Japan—it is much easier for them now to go first to Schiphol, Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt, Madrid and Copenhagen, where British Airways is increasingly hubbing. The environmental consequence of the constraints on the London runway system is not globally and...
Fergus Ewing: ...that was not someone booking a flight. Edinburgh airport carries more than 9 million passengers, with more than 40 airlines providing links to international hubs such as Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt and Newark airport in New York. Edinburgh is now three hours or less from major airport connections in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, where there are huge developments in...
...anything away in saying that I expect that that is likely to be the outcome, but it is incredibly important that we go through those steps, because Heathrow competes aggressively with Charles de Gaulle, Schiphol and Frankfurt, and our position is slipping. If we do not get the market definitions right, we will not know the right point at which, in the future, to evolve that regulatory...
Lord Willoughby de Broke: ...it is not going to be easy, but will it be any worse than the pain inflicted by 10, 15 or 20 years of austerity, low employment, no jobs and lower pensions? That cannot be a viable alternative in a democratic country. Worse, almost, than the financial pain which the euro ideology is inflicting on Europe is the failure and erosion of democracy. Ireland, Portugal, Greece and even Italy are...
Phil Wilson: ..., in the context of this Bill, is the future of regional airports and the connectivity they offer between the regions they serve and the rest of the world. In 1995, Heathrow served 21 domestic destinations and today it serves only six, only two of which are in England. Durham Tees Valley airport in County Durham, which is in my constituency and has part of its runway in the Stockton North...
Thomas Docherty: My hon. Friend is right. The Times paints a disturbing picture today. We on the Defence Committee and the wider defence community have for some time had serious concerns about the capability of Lockheed Martin to fulfil the aspirations set out. When the Minister appeared before the Defence Committee, it was disturbing that he adopted a relatively blasé approach to the problem, in direct...
Lord Kerr of Kinlochard: ...exception, the health of the City is seen as important to the Union. The City's voice is being given due weight, so witnesses told the committee, as the EU's financial supervisory framework develops. This seems to be developing in ways in which the committee, certainly, and, we understood, the Government, supported. That was the message of the admirably clear and positive reply to the...
Lord Gilbert: My Lords, I was very taken by the mention made by the noble Lord, Lord Stevens, of bombproof limousines, although in this country they would be more suitably donated to elected politicians than to faceless bureaucrats, but the idea is one that might find a considerable welcome in the Government. Before I get down to my main remarks, I would like to say noble Lords that I have based much of...
Paul Maynard: I congratulate the hon. Member for Central Ayrshire (Mr Donohoe) on securing the debate. I shall try to be quick, because I know other hon. Members want to speak, so this will be high speed, if not on high rail, which will make a nice change. I welcome the progress that the Government are making on aviation policy. They are taking steps in the right direction. It is not fast enough for me or...
Lord Davies of Oldham: ...to the expansion of our aviation industry as well as potential damage to our economy, particularly a lack of competitiveness against other European airports such as Schiphol, Madrid and Charles de Gaulle. As the noble Lord will recognise only too well, as matters have developed over the past 18 months of this Government's management of the economy, we can ill afford negativity when it...
Lord Howe of Aberavon: Is my noble friend aware of the importance of the point made in the Question for a wider appraisal of the location of such statues? In particular, does she recall that the statue of the French war leader, de Gaulle, is rather surprisingly but historically well located outside the headquarters of the French resistance movement in Carlton Gardens and that the statue of the Welsh war leader,...
Lord Davies of Stamford: The noble Lord will know, I am sure, that defence procurement requires spending money now for capability that will come forward in 10, 15 or 20 years' time. If you do not spend money now, you do not get that capability coming forward. We spent a lot of money exactly on that basis, as the noble Lord should know, in a naval building programme, in projects for which I was responsible-the A400M...
Baroness Valentine: This is a subject I tackle hesitantly, given the weight of discussion which precedes me, but I want to make a few brief points. First, on this emotive and political subject, it is important that Cross-Benchers do not feel constrained by being seen as turkeys with a view one way or the other about Christmas. The non-partisan views of those with broad experience are vital to ensuring that what...
Lord Grenfell: I know that those who do not share my views would wish that that was so. I think I would have been similarly tempted if I had followed the noble Baroness, Lady Boothroyd, in the debate yesterday-she said it all. The noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, follows me and he might take a two-word speech as a sign of infirmity, or maybe even a lack of stamina, and encourage him in his view, expressed here in...
