"My Lords, if the Minister is correct in his economic theory about gas and electricity prices—frankly, I am not sure that he is—why is the lower price of oil, which is now getting quite low, not bringing down the price of gas as well?..." Lord Howell of Guildford - View Speech
"I want to reinforce the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Wigley. He is right, and the Minister is right, that in the past we did indeed have resilience. In this sort of case, resilience means bringing in a large amount of extra supply at very short notice, such …..." Lord Howell of Guildford - View Speech
"My Lords, some of us have been talking to the main SMR producers this very morning. Their general message is that wait, delay and obstruction are their findings in dealing with the British Government, unfortunately. They are waiting for site sales to be settled, for the GDA and DCO processes …..." Lord Howell of Guildford - View Speech
"My Lords, we know that there is not the slightest chance of negotiation while Russia continues its systematic murder of Ukrainians. That is obvious, but does the Minister agree that, even if it came to some kind of initial negotiation, it will be bound to lay down only temporary arrangements …..." Lord Howell of Guildford - View Speech
"My Lords, like others, I congratulate my noble friend Lord Bridges on his ambition and boldness in leading the Economic Affairs Committee to study the proverbially complex and nebulous subject of trying to control and direct our borrowing and the growth of our national debt.
"My Lords, it takes only a few minutes to see why British Steel is in dreadful trouble and chaos, and why we are where we are today. First, its costs are very uncompetitive indeed, especially the cost of electric power, as my noble friend Lord Hunt pointed out in his …..." Lord Howell of Guildford - View Speech
"My Lords, I am certainly not a climate denier. I believe that world emissions are continuing to rise quickly, despite all our efforts and all the warnings of the noble Lord, Lord Stern, and many others, and the difficulties of controlling the climate seem to be growing rather than decreasing. …..." Lord Howell of Guildford - View Speech
"My Lords, the Minister’s Statement and her answers seem to have completely lacked the time dimension, and I wonder why this is so. President Trump is embarking, in theory, on a huge programme of import substitution, major planning and investment for years ahead. There are some areas in which import …..." Lord Howell of Guildford - View Speech
"My Lords, if the Government want to reduce the size of the Civil Service significantly, as I believe they do, will the Minister advise the Chancellor to go a long way back and look at the period 1970-82, when we succeeded in cutting the central Civil Service by a third, …..." Lord Howell of Guildford - View Speech
"My Lords, has the Minister noticed that the chairman of Électricité de France has just been sacked and that, understandably, advice has been given to EDF to spend less money on overseas investments and concentrate on power in France? Can he give us an idea of what effect that has …..." Lord Howell of Guildford - View Speech