Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Charles Kennedy and John Bercow(10 years, 4 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Speaker
I call Mr Charles Kennedy. [Hon. Members: “More! More!”] I am sure the right hon. Gentleman is delighted to be lauded in such enthusiastic fashion.
Mr Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (LD)
It is just like the old days, Mr Speaker.
As the Prime Minister is enjoying a week in which he is making a lot of new best friends, when he gets to the Brussels summit will he give a particularly warm greeting to the man who might yet be his best and certainly his newest friend—President Juncker, who yesterday called for more European reform and warned that applicant states who want to join the European Union face a complex, difficult and drawn-out period of up to, perhaps, five years? As we do not meet before the Scottish referendum, barring a recall, should not the Scots voters bear those words in mind?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Charles Kennedy and John Bercow(13 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Speaker
Order. There is a constant hubbub in the Chamber. People outside must think that it is extremely discourteous.
Mr Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (LD)
The Minister should be aware that what is not devolved are decisions on research funding—decisions that are arrived at here in Westminster and which will have an impact, not least for those Russell group universities in Scotland. Will he give us an undertaking that he will ensure that the Secretary of State for Scotland stays closely in touch with Mike Russell’s all-party working group at Holyrood, so that whatever the political composition after May, we get an outcome for Scottish universities that does not replicate the errors of policy judgment that have sadly been arrived at here?