Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Galloway and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Wednesday 11th September 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

This Government have a very clear policy on the issue of Israel and on the issue of settlements. We respect and welcome Israel’s right to exist, and we defend that, but on settlements we think that the Israeli approach is wrong and we condemn the settlement activity, and we have been consistent in saying that both privately and publicly.

[George Galloway (Bradford West) (Respect)]

Does the Prime Minister get it, Mr Speaker: that if it were not for this House of Commons reflecting the mood of the British public, Britain and the United States would already be in the midst of what, it has turned out, would have been a wholly unnecessary war? Is not this a vindication of Parliament, and a vindication of Mr Churchill’s words that jaw-jaw is better than war-war?

[The Prime Minister]

What it is a vindication of is the determination to stand up to chemical weapons use. We would not be in this situation of pursuing new avenues of getting Syrian chemical weapons out of Syria and destroyed unless a strong stance had been taken. That is the right answer, not crawling up to dictators and telling them how wonderful they are.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Galloway and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Wednesday 30th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. The fact is that the economy that we inherited was completely unbalanced. It was based on housing, it was based-on finance, it was based on Government spending and it was based on immigration. Those were four incredibly unstable pillars for sustained economic growth, and what we have had to do is a major recovery operation. That operation is still under way, but given the new jobs created, the private sector businesses that are expanding, the new people setting up their businesses, we are making progress.

[George Galloway (Bradford West) (Respect)]

Following yesterday’s announcement, will the Prime Minister adumbrate for the House the key differences between the hand-chopping, throat-cutting jihadists fighting the dictatorship in Mali whom we are now to help to kill, and the equally bloodthirsty jihadists to whom we are giving money, matériel and political and diplomatic support in Syria? Has the Prime Minister read “Frankenstein”, and did he read it to the end?

[The Prime Minister]

Some things come and go but there is one thing that is certain: wherever there is a brutal Arab dictator in the world, he will have the support of the hon. Gentleman. [Interruption.]

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Galloway and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Wednesday 18th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Obviously, I have listened carefully to the points that my hon. Friend has made, and the Chancellor has met other Yorkshire MPs. Again, this is an issue about drawing the VAT boundaries fairly. I do not think that it is fair that VAT is payable on a mobile caravan, but not on a stationary one. No one is talking about putting VAT on park homes, which are people’s permanent homes. This is about a fair drawing of the boundaries to ensure that there is a fair approach in our country.

[George Galloway (Bradford West) (Respect)]

As I was saying, Mr Speaker, there is an iron-clad consensus across the Front Benches of the three main parties about what they call a mission, but which, given the amount of blood on the ground and the rapidly deteriorating military situation, most of us call a war in Afghanistan. In the wake of Ms Gillard’s decision to accelerate the withdrawal of Australian forces from that war, and in the wake of the Bradford West by-election, will the Prime Minister reconsider his planning on our withdrawal from the bloody maw of Afghanistan?

[The Prime Minister]

First, I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on his stunning by-election victory and his return to the House of Commons. I know that he always speaks with great power and great force, but on this issue I have to say I profoundly disagree with him. Our troops are in Afghanistan not fighting a war against Islam but at the invitation of an Islamic Government and under a UN resolution, to try to help that country have a peaceful, prosperous and stable future. He knows the dangers in the past of walking away from Afghanistan and leaving that country to become the terrorist-supporting haven that it did under the Taliban. We must not make that mistake again, and I urge him not to play to the gallery on this issue but to speak up for the work that our forces are doing to make Afghanistan a safer country.