Scotland: Independence
Debate between Lord Wallace of Tankerness and Lord West of Spithead(11 years, 7 months ago)
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Lord Wallace of Tankerness
My Lords, as my noble friend will know, the commission established to look at the so-called West Lothian question, under the chairmanship of Sir William McKay, reported a couple of months ago, and obviously the Government are looking at and considering the detail of that report. It has been made clear on a number of occasions that the Government do not have any plans to reform or revise the Barnett formula, as our primary objective is to get the UK government finances back into a healthy situation.
Lord West of Spithead
My Lords, I am sure that the Minister agrees that defence and security are the most important duties of any Government. Is the Minister content that sufficient work is being done on looking at the full detail of the inconsistency of what the SNP says about providing a new MoD, command and control, intelligence and the Five Eyes community? These are a whole raft of issues that are crucially important for the defence of these islands in the future should, by some error or whatever, Scotland become separate. Those things need to be looked at, and I am not sure that they are being looked at.
David Livingstone Bicentenary
Debate between Lord Wallace of Tankerness and Lord West of Spithead(12 years, 4 months ago)
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Lord Wallace of Tankerness
My Lords, for those who had not got the point, I am more than happy to confirm it. Indeed, the commemoration in the Scotland Office will be one by the United Kingdom Government.
Lord West of Spithead
My Lords, the Minister will be aware that a lot of Livingstone’s travels were on Lake Malawi, on the waterways of Malawi. Perhaps the British Government could support the training school for fishermen on Lake Malawi, where many die every year at the moment. That would be a good way of recognising him.
Lord Wallace of Tankerness
My Lords, I welcome that positive suggestion and will make sure that it is passed on.