Results 21–40 of 5000 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Bill Rammell

Defence in the World (15 Mar 2010)

Bill Rammell: No, I want to make some progress. The hon. Member for The Wrekin also asked about the Borona programme and mentioned the allegation of a five-year gap at RAF Cosford. Let me be clear that that is not true; there is no intention to mothball the site. On current planning, the Army will assume ownership of the site, following the Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering vacation, in 2015. It...

Defence in the World (15 Mar 2010)

Bill Rammell: If the hon. Gentleman wants a further discussion about this-I will give way briefly to him-I would be happy to meet him.

Defence in the World (15 Mar 2010)

Bill Rammell: I reiterate to the hon. Gentleman what I have just said: there is no intention to mothball the site. The Army will assume ownership, following the vacation, in 2015. I am more than happy to talk to him in more detail about how this will go forward. My hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, South-West (Mr. Davidson) is a consistent, coherent and dogged advocate of his constituents in support of...

Opposition Day — [4th Allotted Day-First Part]: Defence ( 1 Mar 2010)

Bill Rammell: In large part, we have had a good and constructive debate, and despite the political hyperbole, there is a greater consensus on defence than is sometimes apparent. I wish to start, as did the Secretary of State, by paying tribute to our brave servicemen who have lost their lives in Afghanistan in recent days. They are Senior Aircraftman Luke Southgate of II Squadron RAF Regiment, Rifleman...

Opposition Day — [4th Allotted Day-First Part]: Defence ( 1 Mar 2010)

Bill Rammell: That is the truth. If the Opposition are committed to the same expenditure level, they could set out with clarity and conviction how they would spend the budget differently. Again, there is a deafening silence. As we observe the 26 per cent. poll lead that the Conservatives have mislaid, we see an underlying theme in defence and many other issues: their position does not add up. The general...

Opposition Day — [4th Allotted Day-First Part]: Defence ( 1 Mar 2010)

Bill Rammell: I wholeheartedly agree. There have been some frankly quite disgraceful attacks on the role and work of civilians in the Ministry of Defence over recent months. It is important that we place on record the belief of those in the military that they could not do the job that they do without the support of the civilians. We then had an interesting debate, generated and led by my hon. Friend the...

Opposition Day — [4th Allotted Day-First Part]: Defence ( 1 Mar 2010)

Bill Rammell: I have made the Government's position on the carriers very clear, but what the hon. Gentleman outlines is not consistent with what the shadow Secretary of State said to the trade unions last week: that on day one of a Conservative Government, they would start examining the break clauses, item by item. That is a very different position.

Opposition Day — [4th Allotted Day-First Part]: Defence ( 1 Mar 2010)

Bill Rammell: I agree very much with my hon. Friend, who is an incredibly strong campaigner for his constituents and the carriers. The message that he puts forward is clear and precise.

Opposition Day — [4th Allotted Day-First Part]: Defence ( 1 Mar 2010)

Bill Rammell: I will make some progress, then I will give way. The shadow Secretary of State also referred to the leaked report from the Chief of the General Staff, but he did not highlight the fact that, in that report, the Chief of the General Staff rightly said that "soldiers feel increasingly well supported and resourced on operations," and praised the "medical care in-theatre and in the UK". The Chief...

Opposition Day — [4th Allotted Day-First Part]: Defence ( 1 Mar 2010)

Bill Rammell: We have made our commitment to the carriers abundantly clear, most particularly through the signing and the starting of the contracts last week. Let me answer the serious question that the right hon. Member for North-East Hampshire (Mr. Arbuthnot) asked-he knows that I am committed to meeting him and his constituents-about whether we could be sure that both pilots involved in the Chinook...

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Maritime Piracy (22 Feb 2010)

Bill Rammell: UK armed forces continue to play an integral role in the command and control of EU, NATO and coalition counter-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia. We are determined to play our part, through the Royal Navy, and in close co-operation with other Government Departments and countries, to tackle piracy and to protect legitimate trade and transport.

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Maritime Piracy (22 Feb 2010)

Bill Rammell: We strongly welcome the commitment from the Government of the Seychelles, which was encapsulated in the Djibouti announcement, to consider hosting a regional counter-piracy chamber to prosecute pirates within their national jurisdiction. One of the key challenges that we face is ensuring that prosecutions can take place locally and regionally, and we will continue to press partners in that...

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Maritime Piracy (22 Feb 2010)

Bill Rammell: I wholeheartedly agree with the right hon. Gentleman. While I understand where people who desire the payment of ransoms are coming from, in the longer run it would simply lead to greater problems and more kidnappings-it would store up problems for the future. The Government are therefore right to resist the payment of ransoms.

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Maritime Piracy (22 Feb 2010)

Bill Rammell: I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend. I know many colleagues on both sides of the House who have taken part in that scheme. Indeed, there is a dinner this evening, hosted by Mr. Speaker, that both the Secretary of State and I will attend. It is a genuinely worthwhile scheme that brings home very practically to Members across the House the reality of life in the armed forces.

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Maritime Piracy (22 Feb 2010)

Bill Rammell: I do not want to intrude on the private grief between the hon. Gentleman's party and the Liberal Democrats-and, in any case, I am unsure of its provenance. In respect of piracy, where there is credible evidence, we seek to move towards prosecutions, but where such evidence does not exist, we have to act differently. However, we are giving a wide range of assistance to maritime shipping...

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Maritime Piracy (22 Feb 2010)

Bill Rammell: I certainly agree with my hon. Friend that there is a link between the piracy challenge and the military challenges we face, but there is also the issue of the appalling human rights situation and lack of government in Somalia, and we therefore need to work across Government Departments and with our international partners to tackle the problem at source. Yes, there is a military component to...

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Royal Navy (22 Feb 2010)

Bill Rammell: The Royal Navy continues to meet all its operational tasking and remains extremely busy in support of current operations and standing commitments. The Royal Navy remains flexible and dynamic in its ability to respond to unforeseen events and emergent tasking.

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Royal Navy (22 Feb 2010)

Bill Rammell: As has been repeatedly made clear, this Government remain committed to the carriers-a commitment I have not heard made forcefully from those on the Conservative Benches.

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Royal Navy (22 Feb 2010)

Bill Rammell: May I say to the hon. Gentleman that we remain determined that the wishes of the Falkland islanders should be paramount? We have transformed our military presence since 1982 and we maintain an appropriate deterrence force on the island and in the south Atlantic, comprising a range of land, air and maritime assets. Of course, we keep our military presence under constant review to ensure that...

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Royal Navy (22 Feb 2010)

Bill Rammell: We do everything in our power and I am confident of our ability and capability to defend not only the Falkland Islands but all our overseas territories, in which I know the hon. Gentleman takes an interest.


<< < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >>

Create an alert

Advanced search

Find this exact word or phrase

You can also do this from the main search box by putting exact words in quotes: like "cycling" or "hutton report"

By default, we show words related to your search term, like “cycle” and “cycles” in a search for cycling. Putting the word in quotes, like "cycling", will stop this.

Excluding these words

You can also do this from the main search box by putting a minus sign before words you don’t want: like hunting -fox

We also support a bunch of boolean search modifiers, like AND and NEAR, for precise searching.

Date range

to

You can give a start date, an end date, or both to restrict results to a particular date range. A missing end date implies the current date, and a missing start date implies the oldest date we have in the system. Dates can be entered in any format you wish, e.g. 3rd March 2007 or 17/10/1989

Person

Enter a name here to restrict results to contributions only by that person.

Section

Restrict results to a particular parliament or assembly that we cover (e.g. the Scottish Parliament), or a particular type of data within an institution, such as Commons Written Answers.

Column

If you know the actual Hansard column number of the information you are interested in (perhaps you’re looking up a paper reference), you can restrict results to that; you can also use column:123 in the main search box.