Sunday Trading (London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games) Bill [Lords]
Debate between Stephen Pound and Graham Stringer
Graham Stringer
I was not surprised. I suspect that this is driven by lobbying by the very big stores, which want to open permanently in the long term—
Graham Stringer
It is also, as my hon. Friend says, driven by the Treasury. Ministers would not be able to give examples from other Olympic games because this has not happened in those cases.
I have been fortunate enough to go to a number of Olympic games, and the last thing that would have occurred to me at any of those games would have been to find the local supermarket and spend time in there. That did not occur to me, and I suspect that it will not occur to the people who come to London. This is about something larger—the power of very large supermarkets to change the structure of shopping in this country.
Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill
Debate between Stephen Pound and Graham Stringer(14 years, 1 month ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Graham Stringer
Unfortunately, I think that my hon. Friend may have encouraged the hon. Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark (Simon Hughes) to attempt to intervene. I give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing North (Stephen Pound).
Stephen Pound
I think that the House is at one with my hon. Friend on that particular point.
Like me, my hon. Friend represents an urban constituency. I have three surgeries a week and more than 50% of those who attend are not on the electoral register because they are homeless, asylum seekers or simply incapable of being allowed to register. Does my hon. Friend agree that were we to proceed—as I sincerely hope we will not—with this crude numerically simplistic stitch-up we would be ignoring the reality of life in urban constituencies?
Graham Stringer
I agree with my hon. Friend and I have similar experiences in Blackley and Broughton.