British Steel
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean Excerpts(1 year, 1 month ago)
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Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (Con)
My Lords, it is this side. Does my noble friend recall that the second crossing of the Forth Road Bridge was made of steel, most of which came from China, where they are opening one coal-fired power station a week? Is it not insane to pursue a green agenda which will destroy jobs on this scale and at the same time cost many millions of what my noble friend describes as “government money” but which is taxpayers’ money or borrowed money that taxpayers will have to pay for?
The Earl of Minto (Con)
I completely understand the point about it being taxpayers’ money. There is no such thing as free money and it is very important that we do not lose sight of that. The issue of dealing with China has been well rehearsed, and the Chinese ownership of British Steel is widely known. We are supportive of that relationship.
Employers: Fire and Rehire Tactics
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean Excerpts(1 year, 3 months ago)
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Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)
As we have said clearly, we are consulting and there will be a code of practice. This practice is used very rarely. Even the TUC in 2020 indicated that only 3% of employers had used fire and rehire and only 9% of employees had experienced it even as a threat. Therefore, the code is the right way forward in this case.
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (Con)
My Lords, further to the question from the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, does my noble friend not think it a disgrace that a third of our Ministers on the Front Bench are unpaid and that there are instances of paid Ministers being fired and then rehired on the basis that they do the job on no salary? Should the Government not tackle this in the interests of democracy and fair dealing to our Ministers, who do such an excellent job in this House in very difficult circumstances?
Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)
My noble friend raises an interesting question—this is going off on all sorts of tangents at this point. Those of us who are in this House consider it to be a great privilege, those who are asked to serve the Government consider it a great honour, and we continue to serve the country as best we can.
Scottish Government: Expenditure
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean Excerpts(1 year, 6 months ago)
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Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)
The Scottish Government will argue that every area of legislation they are putting forward is within the devolution settlement. We sometimes disagree with that, and where we disagree with it vehemently, as we did on GRR, we invoke Section 35. That was the first time in 237 Bills that received Royal Assent and was not done lightly; that was done in a case where they strayed across the line and were making legislation for Scotland that had a negative impact on England. We will continue to monitor this. Fergus Ewing, who is part of SNP royalty, would blame the Bute House agreement with the Green Party—which he describes as wine bar revolutionaries—for putting forward “progressive” legislation designed to diverge from the UK, and that is what we must put an end to.
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (Con)
My Lords, does my noble friend think it reasonable that the Scottish Government, who cannot run ferry services to the Western Isles, where the roads are full of holes and the health service and education are in crisis, should have an office in Beijing? Why on earth should my taxes support an office in Beijing for the Scottish Government?
Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)
Again, this is an issue of there being no SNP representative in this House. It is a bit like playing “Hamlet” without the prince; there is nobody here to put the Scottish Government’s case. They would say that under the devolution settlement they are allowed to promote Scotland overseas, in particular in relation to trade, and that they have eight embassies that they are using to promote trade across the UK. It came to our attention that it was not entirely the case that it was only in trade matters, and the Foreign Secretary has taken steps to pull that back into line.