Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Beith and Nick Clegg

Wednesday 12th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

Of course I agree with the hon. Lady that we need to strike the right balance, explaining to the public that we are running a tough but firm immigration system where it needs to be tough and firm, but one that is open to those who want to come here, make a contribution, pay their taxes and contribute to our way of life. I was deeply saddened and shocked to hear about the incidents and what had happened to members of the Polish and Chinese community in her constituency, and even more so to hear about what has happened to her colleague Anna Lo, Member of the Legislative Assembly. I understand that she is the first Member of Chinese descent in any legislature in Europe, but she, too, has been subject to terrible abuse by bullies and racists. I rang her a few weeks ago to express my support for what she is doing to stand up against that terrible treatment.

[Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (LD)]

Q2. Since a £700 tax cut, free school meals and the pupil premium will improve the opportunities and lives of many of my constituents, even though these ideas were not entirely welcome to some among our coalition partners, will my right hon. Friend welcome the fact that coalition government and the compromises that go with it can deliver sound policies?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

Yes, I strongly agree with my right hon. Friend, especially on those policies. One of them, as he will know, is in the papers this morning, because of the slightly inexplicable views of an entirely unknown if highly opinionated ex-party adviser to the Conservative party about free school meals. Free school meals, when they are delivered for those in infant school in September, will save families money, improve the health of children and improve educational outcomes. Instead of denigrating that policy, we should be celebrating it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Beith and Nick Clegg

Wednesday 4th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I certainly understand the hon. Gentleman’s sense of urgency about getting these city deals and the second wave agreed, and we are working flat out to get that done. As hon. Members can imagine, there are lots of t’s to be crossed and i’s to be dotted, but we are determined to push through, both in his part of the country and elsewhere, the principle of ensuring that less power is hoarded in Whitehall and that more power, resources and freedom to use them are allocated to local communities, local enterprise partnerships and local authorities.

[Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (LD)]

Given that Northumberland faces more and more onshore wind farm applications on sensitive sites, may I welcome any reduction in the incentive for onshore wind farms, within our total commitment to renewables, which will be maintained, and may I thank my right hon. Friend for his part in this?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

As my right hon. Friend knows and as the Chief Secretary to the Treasury will confirm shortly in greater detail, we have adjusted the strike prices for onshore wind and to solar panel installations, because we believe it is now viable to do so, and made more attractive further investment in the offshore wind industry, in which we are already a world leader. We must maintain that leadership for the benefit not only of areas such as the north-east, but for the country, all of which would be blighted by an economically illiterate energy policy.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Beith and Nick Clegg

Tuesday 4th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

We have, of course, made reforms in this area already, but we will continue to keep them under review.

[Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (LD)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the north-east of England could benefit greatly from the kind of devolution he is working on? It would promote growth in the region, but he also needs to make sure that the rural areas of the north-east have a key decision-making role when that devolution happens.

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I strongly agree, and I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend for the way in which he has championed his constituency, particularly on transport links which I know are a bone of contention there and in the region more generally. I also know he agrees with me that the north-east in particular has great natural strengths that could enable it to become not only a national but a European and world leader in renewable and offshore technologies. That is precisely why the industrial strategies of my right hon. Friend the Business Secretary have been devoting so much attention to that sector.

Succession to the Crown Bill

Debate between Lord Beith and Nick Clegg

Tuesday 22nd January 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I want to make progress and quote a statement by the Church of England itself, in a briefing issued to MPs last week. It said:

“The present prohibition on anyone remaining in the line of succession or succeeding to the Crown as a result of marrying a Roman Catholic is not necessary to support the requirement that the Sovereign join in communion with the Church of England. Its proposed removal is a welcome symbolic and practical measure consistent with respect for the principle of religious liberty. It reflects the sea change in ecumenical relations over recent decades.”

I have, therefore, quoted statements from both the Catholic Church and the Church of England and I hope they will provide ample comfort to those who are concerned.

[Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (LD)]

I support the position that my right hon. Friend is taking and I am worried by the argument of the hon. Member for North East Somerset (Jacob Rees-Mogg) that, somehow, the United Kingdom Government and the monarchy would have to ask the permission of the Papacy, which would, in itself, be a deprivation of religious freedom. These are difficult decisions, but what my right hon. Friend is doing is surely not putting us in that situation.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Beith and Nick Clegg

Tuesday 8th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I am proud that this coalition Government have come together to clear up the monumental mess left by the hon. Lady’s party. After all, it was her shadow Chancellor who went on the prawn cocktail charm offensive in the City of London to suck up to the banks, which created the problems in the first place. It was the Labour Government who presided over the shocking tax system in which a hedge fund manager paid less tax on their shares than their cleaner paid on their wages. It is this coalition Government who have ended that scandal.

[Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (LD)]

T6. I congratulate my right hon. Friend on bringing forward legislation on the succession to the Crown. However, does he think that it is necessary to push it through in one day as if it was emergency terrorism legislation, when Parliament has a job to do to ensure that it is correctly drafted and that any concerns or unforeseen difficulties are addressed properly?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

Making a small, concise amendment to an Act that has been on the statute book since 1701 is hardly acting hastily.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Beith and Nick Clegg

Tuesday 16th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

As I have explained, the legislation is on the statute book and that will not change. I have merely made clear during the last few weeks and months the position of Liberal Democrat Members when the matter comes to a vote.

[Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (LD)]

6. What terms of reference he has given to the commission of priorities for the economy of the north-east.

[The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Nick Clegg)]

The terms of reference for a strategic, constructively critical review of the economy in the north-east have rightly been set by the north-east local enterprise partnership itself, not by Government. The partnership has commissioned a high-profile team of leaders from UK finance, industry, public and civil society to produce this review, and I believe it will be an excellent means of helping to drive growth in the north-east. I look forward, as I believe my right hon. Friend does too, to receiving the report early next year.

[Sir Alan Beith]

Is my right hon. Friend confident that this group, which has an important and valuable job to do, can take fully into account those things that matter to the economy of Northumberland, in particular the dualling of the A1 and the provision of broadband in rural areas?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

Absolutely. I can assure my right hon. Friend on that because the group, as he knows, is independently constituted and can address itself to the concerns surrounding broadband infrastructure and road transport, which I know are deeply felt and on which he has long campaigned in the north-east.

House of Lords Reform Bill

Debate between Lord Beith and Nick Clegg

Monday 3rd September 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I have made it very clear that all Liberal Democrats, whether Front Bench or Back Bench, will vote against the changes coming into effect before 2015. On the right hon. Gentleman’s first point, I wonder whether he could advise the House on what more the Government could have done to seek to understand what a cross-party approach would be. We convened cross-party discussions on seven occasions when the coalition Government were first formed. We published a White Paper and a draft Bill. We convened a Joint Committee, allowed it to continue its work for months and months, and adopted the vast majority of its recommendations. We chopped and changed our legislative text, taking on board suggestions from Opposition and Government Members. For the right hon. Gentleman to say that that was a capricious exercise unilaterally conducted by the Government ignores the painstaking work put in by the Minister with responsibility for political and constitutional reform, my hon. Friend the Member for Forest of Dean (Mr Harper), me and many others to try to generate proper cross-party support for this now long overdue measure.

[Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (LD)]

Now that Labour’s refusal to co-operate on a timetable has ensured that we will see a steady increase in the number of unelected legislators, may I assure my right hon. Friend that he was very wise not to invite my hon. Friends and me to support a reduction in the number of elected legislators?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

As my right hon. Friend suggests, of course there is an argument that says that if one reduces the size of one Chamber—the House of Commons—but does not make the other more legitimate, all one ends up doing is strengthening the hand of an already over-mighty Executive. That argument has some force, but I have never hidden the fact that the reason why I believe that the boundary changes should not—and, indeed, will not—go ahead in 2015 is that the overall package of constitutional and political reform measures would otherwise be unacceptably unbalanced within the coalition Government.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Beith and Nick Clegg

Tuesday 20th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

For anyone who wants to defend the status quo, and it is unclear whether the hon. Lady does—the Labour party used to campaign proudly for reform of the bastion of privilege and inherited power but seems to have lost its historical vocation as a progressive force for political reform—I ask them to reflect on the fact that over 70% of all the people in the other place are there because of an act of political patronage. Is that really sustainable in the 21st century? I do not think so.

[Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (LD)]

14. Has the Deputy Prime Minister received many representations from those who appear to believe that the way to uphold the supremacy of the elected House is to defy the supremacy of the elected House, which has already said that it wants to introduce some democracy to the other Chamber?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I strongly agree with my right hon. Friend. There is an odd sort of circularity in the argument that, notwithstanding the fact that this House has voted clearly in favour of either a wholly or largely elected Chamber, somehow to preserve the primacy of this House we should not allow any legitimacy into the other place. That seems to me to be a somewhat self-serving argument.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Beith and Nick Clegg

Tuesday 5th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

We have not addressed that in the White Paper. If people want to discuss it in the Joint Committee, they are free to do so.

[Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (LD)]

Has my right hon. Friend read the debates in which the argument was advanced that the House of Lords does its job, and therefore should not be changed in any way? If so, did he think he was reading the right issue of Hansard, or the one dated 1911, or perhaps the one dated 1832?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

Whatever their views about the proposals for House of Lords reform that the Government made in the White Paper and the draft Bill, I believe that everybody accepts that the House of Lords is not immune to reform or improvement. My view is that political institutions are always susceptible to some improvement over time, and I believe that that package of carefully considered reforms, which I hope, over time, will enjoy cross-party support, will finally allow us to make progress on something that has been debated for more than a century.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Beith and Nick Clegg

Tuesday 27th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I am interested that the hon. Gentleman should think that the abolition of the regional development agencies and Government offices is somehow a blow against localism. Our view is that the Government offices had become a representation of Whitehall in the regions, rather than a voice for the regions in Whitehall. Equally, some RDAs do a good job, but he knows as well as I do that many local communities do not identify with regional development agencies. That is why we were right to say that it was up to local communities to come together with the private sector and others to create local enterprise partnerships, which are genuinely representative of what local communities want.

[Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (LD)]

Does my right hon. Friend recognise that the abolition of outposts of central Government in the regions is good news so long as the decisions that they previously took devolve locally and do not drift to the centre? Does he also recognise the importance that business in the north-east attaches to the creation of a new enterprise partnership that is able to do some of the things that the regional development agency used to do?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

Yes, of course I recognise that it is very important that the manner in which the local enterprise partnerships are now established—not least in the north-east, which has a strong regional identity—should be shaped around the needs of the communities involved. We look forward to receiving proposals from the north-east for the local enterprise partnerships in the north-east.

May I just say that localism is not just about bureaucratic structures? It is about giving local authorities greater control over our health service and people a say over how policing is conducted in our local communities. It is about looking long term at how local authorities can have a greater say over money as well. That is real localism, not bureaucratic localism.