Tobacco Products (Plain Packaging)

Debate between Chris Ruane and Roger Williams

Tuesday 3rd September 2013 Westminster Hall

[Chris Ruane]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. He is right. Labour did many good things. We curtailed advertising. We introduced the ban on smoking in public places. But we did not do enough and we need to do more. When I spoke about this package at an anti-smoking do in Parliament, JTI—Japan Tobacco International—had a spy in the room and wrote to me afterwards, saying, “Mr Ruane, you’ve got it all wrong. These are called 14s because there are 14 cigarettes inside the packet.” It was a Miss Laura Oates who castigated me and she went on to criticise the Labour Government for not doing enough on proxy purchasing.

I agree: I think that we should take up Miss Laura Oates’s cry for more pressure on the tobacco industry and concentrate on that. This is just one step in the campaign to cut and then eliminate smoking in the UK. Thanks go to Laura Oates for suggesting other campaigns as well. I think that we should have a whole string of them over the next 10 years. It should be a long-term policy to—

[Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire) (LD)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Chris Ruane]

No, I will not; I have given way once.

It should be a long-term policy to eradicate smoking in our country. The tobacco industry is very successful at capturing young hearts, minds and lungs, to such an extent that 567 children a day start smoking. A majority of those smokers will continue smoking until the day they die—early.

The industry has been forced to get new recruits because people are dropping off on the other end. Mature people, adults, older people are stopping smoking. They are also dying—150,000 people a year are dying, so the industry needs to get new recruits as early as possible; the earlier it gets them, the more profitable it is. If it can get 50 or 60 years of smoking out of a 12-year-old, that is much more profitable than getting an adult at the age of 18. It is an extra six years of profitability, built on the back of that child’s life—or death.

I know that we should not be party political, but the Government have back-pedalled on this issue and that of the unit pricing of alcohol. There is time for a rethink. There is a lot of co-operation and support in the Chamber and outside. We ought to work together to force this issue and force it quickly.

Fuel Poverty (Wales)

Debate between Chris Ruane and Roger Williams

Tuesday 19th March 2013 Westminster Hall

[Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire) (LD)]

The hon. Gentleman talks about VAT but, of course, VAT is charged at 5% on energy and, as far as I know, it has stayed at that level during this Parliament.

[Chris Ruane]

The hon. Gentleman might be right about that, but wider cuts are affecting the disposable income of all families, especially the poorest.

The Prime Minister talks a good talk but he does not walk a good walk. He promised from the Dispatch Box that he would force the energy companies to offer the lowest tariffs to the poorest people, but nothing happened—he did not know the detail. The Government need to do much more. Pressure needs to be put on the energy companies and the big bonuses they are handing out at the same time as they increase prices massively. In the past year, two chief executives have left their energy companies. One was given a £13.5 million golden handshake and the other got £15 million. That is obscene at a time when people will be freezing to death—dying of hypothermia in their own homes.

There needs to be an inquiry into the ups and downs of gas prices. When supply is tight, gas prices shoot up, but when it is loosened, they gently come down. The time lag and price lag need to be fully investigated, because people are being ripped off. If customers are middle class and have a steady income, so they pay by direct debit, they are offered a discount of £100, but if people have to fill their electricity or gas meter with 50p and £1 coins, they are charged the maximum, and that is wrong.

There needs to be certainty and unity within the Government on energy policy. We see the antics of Ministers who are opposed to solar farms in the fens. There are MPs—some from north Wales—who are opposed to offshore wind farms, MPs who are opposed to onshore wind farms, and MPs who are opposed to the feed-in tariff. They know what they are against, but they do not know they are for, and the uncertainty and lack of unity has led to a lack of investment in the renewable energy market in my constituency and throughout the UK.

[Roger Williams]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Chris Ruane]

I have given way to the hon. Gentleman once; that is all he is getting from me.

The Government have introduced the energy company obligation, for which I give them credit, and £1.2 billion has been set aside for the whole of the UK—[Interruption.] I urge the Minister—he is yakking away over there—to ensure that Wales gets its fair share of that ECO money.

Rural Bank Closures

Debate between Chris Ruane and Roger Williams

Tuesday 21st February 2012 Westminster Hall

[Roger Williams]

My hon. Friend makes a good point, but the responsibility lies with all the banks. They have got to come together a find a way of addressing the problem.

[Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd) (Lab)]

Should the Government be looking at closures over the past 10 years, and at which banks have closed branches and which have not? They could then force banks to get together and create a common policy for bank closure programmes in rural areas. Each bank would take part of the burden so that it would not be left to just one bank.

[Roger Williams]

There is a theme running through the interventions that I have taken so far. The problem is a responsibility for all the major banks, rather than for a specific bank in a particular town or community, or even in Harrow. Banks should come together and solve the problem.

Presteigne is not only a sleepy country town; it contains a number of innovative businesses such as Mangar International, which manufactures, designs and supplies rehabilitation and assisted living equipment of a sort not found anywhere else in the world. Teledyne Labtech manufactures microwave circuits, and there are a number of other businesses. We were lucky to have attracted those businesses through the Development Board for Rural Wales, and a number of manufacturing facilities sprang up in Presteigne of which we are proud and wish to hold on to. I cannot, however, see us being able to attract that type of development if there is no bank in Presteigne—it is unlikely that businesses will be attracted to areas where banking is not available.

--- Later in debate ---

[Roger Williams]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention, but I think that I have made it clear that although I believe that the Government can take a degree of initiative in this field, it is really the responsibility of individual banks or banks as a whole to ensure that they are able to service these vulnerable communities, because they owe a debt of loyalty to them.

[Chris Ruane]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way to me again. I do not have the exact phrase with me, but does he recall the banker who said, 18 months into the recession, that the time for remorse is over? That banker misjudged the mood of the nation then and, indeed, now. Relying purely on the good will of bankers when that is the feeling from them—the time for remorse is over—is not likely to bring about the change that most of us in this Chamber want.

[Roger Williams]

In the long run, it is in the banks’ interest to ensure that they provide a comprehensive level of service to the communities that they wish to serve and services that are more accessible and more convenient. I think that it is probably the role of the Government to sit down with the bankers, as was suggested by the hon. Member for Harrow West (Mr Thomas), and set out what should be required of banks. Not all the banks were bailed out with public money as a result of the banking collapse, but all banks have benefited from Government action—quantitative easing, for instance—and just about all banks are dependent or have depended on measures that the Government have brought forward. It is time to sit down and see what can be achieved to help these communities.

Welsh Grand Committee (Scrutiny)

Debate between Chris Ruane and Roger Williams

Tuesday 2nd November 2010 Westminster Hall

[Roger Williams]

I absolutely accept what the hon. Gentleman says. I am all for developing the system if it makes it more productive and gives Back Benchers a greater role, but the fact that we have had some development does not preclude or prevent other developments in future.

[Chris Ruane]

I thank my hon. Friend for giving way; I will call him a friend—an ex-Friend. I concur entirely: the Welsh Grand Committee needs to be developed, but in the meantime all we need to do is meet. Does he agree that we need to meet and talk—jaw-jaw?

[Roger Williams]

I have said on the record that I was a signatory to the early-day motion, so we will leave that subject for a moment.

When the Minister sums up, will he address my suggestion that we look at how the Welsh Grand Committee system operates and encourage Back Benchers to have a greater say, not only on the frequency of Welsh Grand Committee meetings, but on the subjects? I include in that an assessment of how the question and answer sessions work, whether we need Ministers appearing at the Committee to answer questions on specific areas of Government policy and whether we call expert witnesses to help with our deliberations. Cledwyn put a very successful system in place, but it is time for it to evolve and develop to ensure that Welsh Back Benchers have real input in Government policy as it affects Wales.