High Speed Rail (Preparation) Bill
Debate between Baroness Laing of Elderslie and Jonathan Edwards(11 years ago)
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Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing)
The hon. Gentleman indicates that he wishes to move an amendment that has not been spoken to, and I cannot take his amendment.
Third Reading
Commission on Devolution in Wales
Debate between Baroness Laing of Elderslie and Jonathan Edwards(13 years ago)
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Mrs Laing
I appreciate what the hon. Gentleman is saying. I do not believe that we should have a needs-based formula. I would always argue that the Barnett formula distributes taxpayers’ money in a reasonable manner, even though it obviously needs to be reformed and brought up to date. Just as Newcastle does not require the same sort of taxpayer subsidy as Surrey, and just as the centre of Birmingham does not require the same amount as the leafy lanes of Kent, so it is important that we get the balance right in Scotland and Wales.
Jonathan Edwards
Does the hon. Lady recognise that London gets a higher percentage of public expenditure per head than any other part of the British state, including Wales?
Mrs Laing
Of course, because some areas of London are desperately in need of help from taxpayers’ money. There are enormous areas of poverty, deprivation and need in London; that is why it happens. Of course it does. If the hon. Gentleman is not willing to be fair to people who live in London, why should the rest of the country be fair to his constituents?
That brings me to the other points made by the hon. Member for Pontypridd and the right hon. Member for Torfaen. Although I would argue that the distribution of taxpayers’ money is currently done fairly, the democratic balance between different parts of our United Kingdom has not, until now, been fair. It is totally outrageous that the hon. Member for Pontypridd should describe as “shameless gerrymandering” the equalisation of constituencies. In what way is it democratically fair that Pontypridd has 58,000 electors, Torfaen 61,000 and Neath 57,000, while the Secretary of State’s constituency has 70,000 and mine has 72,000?
Fixed-term Parliaments Bill
Debate between Baroness Laing of Elderslie and Jonathan Edwards(14 years ago)
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Mrs Laing
I thank my hon. Friend very much for those statistics. He is absolutely correct, and talking about averages is neither here nor there. We should be looking at the number of Parliaments that have run for five years, almost five years or very much less. We cannot count the war years, and it is irrelevant to count unusual times. There is no norm of four-year Parliaments. The Bill does not extend anything; it merely enshrines the current situation.
Jonathan Edwards
On UK norms, is it not true that where institutions are fixed, whether in Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland, or in local authorities and town, community and parish councils, the norm is four years? The norm in the UK is four years, and that is the whole point of the amendment.
Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill
Debate between Baroness Laing of Elderslie and Jonathan Edwards(14 years ago)
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Jonathan Edwards
Does the hon. Lady recognise that historically there has always been a weighting in favour of the Celtic nations to ensure that we do not have an England-dominated Parliament?
Mrs Laing
No, I certainly do not. The hon. Gentleman’s point has no validity whatever. This is the Parliament of the United Kingdom—of the whole United Kingdom—and every constituency in this United Kingdom should be of equal size and should have an equal number of voters. Every Member who is elected to this Parliament should come here with an equal weight of electorate behind them.