13/06/2016 Monday in Parliament

Hello and welcome to Monday in Parliament, our look at the best

of the day in the Commons and the Lords.

MPs condemn the terrorist attack on a gay nightclub

And we should go out proud and margin pride, hold hands with our

loved ones, kiss them, stand up against the haters, the killers, the

bigots. That attack shows there are still those out there who want to

attack our hard-won right to peacefully coexist.

How long does it take to answer the phone?

Too long, when you're trying to contact Her Majesty's Revenue

Not only do we know that customers were criticising us for the number

of minutes they were waiting, but they were also criticising us for

the music. Don't get left behind

in the digital revolution. A peer says we've got to sharpen

up our high-tech skills. I believe that universal literacy in

digital things will be as important as basic literacy was in the

industrial revolution. It's been called the worst mass

shooting in recent US history. An American-born man who pledged

allegiance to so-called Islamic State killed 49 people

when he opened fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida,

in the early hours of Sunday The gunman was then himself killed

during a shootout with police as they broke into the club to

rescue 30 people being held hostage. President Obama described it

as an act of home-grown extremism, but said the gunman was inspired

by information on the internet. A minute's silence for the victims

was held in the Commons. The attacks in Orlando

on Saturday night were utterly evil and the government

condemns them completely. At least 49 people were murdered

and a further 53 people injured, These people were enjoying a night

out when the attacks took place. Our hearts go out to them,

their families and their friends. This is the deadliest mass shooting

in US history. It was an outrage committed

to spread fear and born It is clear that such an attack

has its roots in a twisted ideology which counts homophobia

as a cornerstone of This was not just an act of terror,

but an act of homophobic hatred. And I want to make clear to all LGBT

people in Britain and around the world, that we will not tolerate

such bigotry and violence. She has acknowledged quite rightly

that homophobia, trans-phobia and hate appear to have played

a key part in this attack So can I ask that she will be

looking carefully at the threats from all sources to our own

communities and that, Mr Speaker, not least due to the increase

in hate crimes in this country in 2014/15, 5597 hate

crimes against people because of their sexual orientation

and 605 against people Every bit of hate we chip away

and replace with love is helping So we must never forget that love

wins, even in the end, even in dark, horrific times,

and we should go out proud and marching pride,

hold hands with our loved ones, kiss them, stand up

against the hated, the killers -- stand up against the people who

hate, the killers and the bigots and never forget

the slaying of Orlando also many who have stood up bravely

in the cause of equality and love May I commend the honourable

gentleman for the remarks He has spoken movingly

on this issue. As the first openly gay Conservative

MP, may I welcome the absolute and total unanimity of this House

today in sending a message of support and sympathy

to the victims and the people of Orlando and may we hope that

America is listening and fully understands the genuine nature

of what we are trying to say. Mr Speaker, I am proud to be

a member of the LGBT community. In years gone by and when I came out

30 years ago, we used to be afraid of going into clubs and bars

for fears of insults We had hoped that those days

were long gone. But this attack shows

there are still those out there who wish to attack

our hard-won rights I'm sure the Home Secretary

will understand that we need to know that the authorities will take

particular protections to protect the LGBT community from homophobic

attacks particularly during the Pride season

which is about to come up A number of countries have sent

messages of solidarity with the United States

and the people of Orlando. But a number of those countries

themselves have the death penalty for homosexuality and have arrested

hundreds of people, including Egypt in the last two

years, and Saudi Arabia. Isn't it time that all those

countries that came into the 21st-century and recognised

they have to match their words I'm a gay man and let's also

an ambiguously what happened -- I'm a gay man and let us all say

unambiguously It was a premeditated slaughter

of gay people because they were gay, by a man who, we are told, had been

outraged because he recently saw It was the worst mass killing of gay

people in our lifetime. Would the Home Secretary agree

with me that homophobia is not It is too often taught in homes,

in-school classrooms and playgrounds So anyone who has ever winced

when they saw two men kissing, muttered loathing when they saw two

women holding hands and who has invoked God in justification

for human prejudice, is complicit in creating a climate

of poisonous intolerance. In my constituency of Ilford North,

Muslims don't murder gay And I know that I speak on the half

of all of the diverse faith communities in my constituency

in sending our solidarity It seems to be a facet of our times

that there is rising hate, discrimination and inflammatory

language re-entering Can the Home Secretary say

whether she has seen a poster that was circulated this afternoon

by Leave.EU which sought to use events in Orlando

for their own purposes. And will she join me in condemning

this highly offensive I was shown a picture of this just

before I came into this chamber. This is a terrible and horrific

homophobic terrorist attack And I think attempts to link it

into the issue of membership of the European Union should rightly

be condemned on all There was also reaction

to the Orlando killings over We are not, as we know only too

well, immune from such atrocity and hate crimes from those

who want to divide, not And we seek to create an environment

where no sections of our communities are demonised or feel threatened

or discriminated against. Since we recognise that

if we can achieve that goal, it will encourage and deliver

the tolerance and understanding of each other which is the hallmark

of a stable, safe Earlier today, on Twitter,

David Morgan said this. "If you're not gay, you might not

know how rare it can be to feel To be gunned down in one

of those is just terrific." And that's why today,

my lords, members of my community Just as we did 19 years ago,

when the Admiral Duncan This is an attack

on our civilisation. That is what is at root,

it is a hatred of our civilisation. And only when we get to the bottom

of that with a united front against it, alongside

all the security measures that need to be taken will we,

it seems to me, really We must not match hatred

with hatred. We must inform, we must

educate but above all, we must make absolutely sure

that this extremism is not represented as the extremism that

comes from any religion or any theology or any community

but we have the quiet determination to absolutely resist it and ensure

that such actions Callers trying to get

through to the tax office last year spent a staggering four million

hours on hold - listening to streamed music while they waited

for the phone to be answered. The Public Accounts Committee has

been questioning officials from HMRC about whether,

in the words of the song, HMRC's chief executive promised

a much improved In 2015/2016, customers

were on hold for four million And in fact, it's interesting

the course according to a survey -- it is interesting, because

according to a survey of the most streamed pieces of music

during that time, number one was Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson

and Bruno Mars and a second place We had a discussion on the committee

as to what should be Things Can Only Get Better,

Should I Stay Or Should I Go, or maybe Don't Leave Me This Way

or one of my favourites, Debbie Harry's Hanging

On The Telephone. So I don't know if you have any

suggestions of what would be useful during those four million hours that

people on hold should The serious point is that we don't

want anyone to be listening to more music than two

minutes from now on on, What we have been doing over

the last year is significantly Funnily enough, we do listen

to feedback very seriously and we picked up on our Twitter

trend, and a lot of people So not only did we know that

customers were criticising us for the number of

minutes they were waiting, but they were also criticising

the music so we did The National Audit Office has

published a report The NAL are suggesting that

for every ?1 you have cut, there has been a ?4 increase in time

and money cost to customers. Do you think that it is right

that the balance should be HMRC's chief executive said

it was important to be transparent about the cost

of reducing queuing times. You will eventually get to the point

of our time... of people waiting. There is a model

which is a Danish telephony engineer, Erlanger, which says what

does it mean if you want to go to 90% in two minutes. And you end up

with an equation. Mr Thomson has made a point about queueing and you

could take all the customer service staff to far. But it would appear to

me that we are not at that yet, based on these numbers. Agreed. I'm

Cindy trying to make the point -- I am simply trying to make the

point... My sample, if we were trying to answer 99% of calls in two

minutes, we have 30% or 40% increase in costs. So there's a point at

which... I think you have got the message from the committee that

taxpayers don't want a maths lesson they just want... Absolutely. It

needs to be better, we will make it better. I'm Cindy saying that I

don't want my good friend on my left to get to a point where he is having

to say there is a whole bunch of new problems. So Mr Thomson, you have

pledged to do something about it, you have got your mathematical model

and what you are saying is that hopefully taxpayers by next time

will have a much better service? Absolutely.

The European football championships, better known as Euro2016,

got underway in France at the weekend.

Much of the headlines however have,

There were violent clashes involving rival England and Russian supporters

before and after the game between the two

At least 20 people were taken to hospital as a result

French riot police used water cannon and tear gas to deal

Two England fans were jailed for throwing bottles at police.

In the Commons, the Home Secretary said the violence in Marseille

The French authorities had to deal with trouble involving England

supporters on Thursday, Friday and Saturday around the city

and there were alarming clashes inside the stadium at the end

The French and Uefa will rightly be asking themselves searching

questions about how it was that segregation of fans

within the Velodrome stadium broke down.

There will be lessons to be learned surrounding the wider police

operation and I am in no doubt that co-ordinated groups of Russian

supporters bear heavy responsibility for instigating violence.

However, Mr Speaker, we must also ensure that we have

Some among the England contingent in Marseille behaved inexcusably.

Anyone who has travelled to France in order to cause trouble has

let down their nation, and does a disservice to all genuine

She said such scenes must not be repeated.

We have visited nearly 1400 people with a history of football related

violence from travelling and an extension of the ban

on alcohol sales around key matches announced

Above all, I would appeal to the English and Welsh fans

travelling to Lens this Thursday, Uefa has made it clear

that the penalties for bad behaviour for individuals and for the teams

I have every confidence the fans will respond in the right spirit

and we can all get back to enjoying the tournament.

The terrible scenes of violence in Marseille this weekend has soured

what should have been a great celebration of football.

As ever, the vast majority have been let down by a hard-core minority

and their actions are even more inexcusable given the serious terror

While the England fans are not blameless as the Home Secretary

said, it is also the case that they were the subject

And that there was severe failings inside the stadium and also

You're watching our round-up of the day in the Commons and the Lords.

Still to come: Members of the House of Lords elect their next Speaker.

Will there be more lower cost homes to rent at the end of this

Parliament than there were at the beginning?

It was the question put to the local government minister, Marcus Jones,

The Communities committee has been looking into the increase

We had three people who have been homeless in the last session.

I asked them at the end what one thing could be done to actually

improve things for homeless families and they all said build

some more social rented housing, council housing.

What is your response to that and are we likely at the end

of the Parliament to see more social rented housing

What I would say is that we are spending ?1.6 billion during this

Parliament to build another 100,000 properties for affordable rent.

What I would say is that from 1997 - 2010 we lost 470,000

affordable properties to rent across the country.

Over the last five years there has been 277,000 more

properties to rent built and we are going to

What I was asking was, the witness was very clear,

they were looking for more social rented housing so the question asked

was are there likely to be more social rented housing

at the end of this Parliament and at the beginning?

As I said we have got clear plans to build social rented,

to build 100,000 affordable houses to rent.

I'm sorry, I think I will ask the questions here.

Is it that you can't really give an answer?

Like I said it is a clear plan that we have got to build

an extra 100,000 properties for affordable rent.

What I would also say is that over the last six years we have built

more council houses as a country than were built in

It is nonsensical that we spend so much public money through housing

benefit payments to private landlords for accommodation that

doesn't even meet decent homes standards.

Surely reviewing the system and providing decent secure

tenancies at a decent level is a better use of money

than to continually see that money leak to the private sector?

It is important that any accommodation is good quality

accommodation and that we have not got people living in properties that

What I would say in terms of the specific question of social

rented housing, certainly in London our clear plan

is with right to buy that there will be two replacements

The boss of a telecoms company has spoken of a growing gulf in digital

Lady Harding, who as Dido Harding is chief executive of TalkTalk,

claimed in the Lords that some 10 million adults were lacking

in such basic skills as being able to send an e-mail or fill

She was contributing to a three-hour debate on digital skills.

Put simply, my Lords, the digital revolution is in danger

Without addressing the growing gap in digital skills

we risk permanently disadvantaging some groups.

That'll be a tragedy for those individuals but will also

artificially cap Britain's potential to be the world's leading technology

I believe that universal digital literacy is going to be every bit

as important as basic literacy was during the Industrial

As we deal with that digital revolution and the revolution

which is coming up behind it, which is the artificial

intelligence revolution, it is clear that we need people

with digital skills to help UK plc keep pace and thrive.

Frankly we haven't got enough of them.

That is why we need that digital skills revolution.

I have not picked up a book in the last two years.

I read quite a lot but I do read on Kindle.

Why aren't we introducing Kindles in schools?

Why aren't we showing children how we should be doing certain

Why are teachers standing in front of a class telling children

something which they could find out from the iPad, by looking at Google

Terrorism, money-laundering and all kinds of criminality

thrive anonymously on the so-called dark web.

Last week Robert Hannigan the head of GCHQ said that the arrival

of quantum computers inside the next decade will crack even the most

sophisticated encryption and undermine the foundations

In these increasingly unpredictable times in international affairs

and democratic politics the internet and social media add to the growing

No digital economy and regular economy, there will just be

the economy with digital underpinnings all

As we have already heard potentially up to 35% of jobs

And whether that is 10% or 35% there is a really significant

underbelly to that number and that is the kind of jobs

which potentially will disappear as a result of automation.

What is the point in long courses because the whole of someone's life

in IT is going to be learning and relearning?

I am having to learn another computer language now

because the one I know is out of date.

And this is going to be the same for everybody in IT.

It's an absolutely non-stop continuing package to learn.

To sit down and think you can learn three years of it at the beginning

Finally, peers have elected their next House of Lords Speaker.

The Conservative Lord Fowler, who was Health Secretary

in Margaret Thatcher's Government, becomes only the third person

His two predecessors were Lady Hayman and Lady D'Souza.

Lord Fowler got 443 of the 639 votes that were cast.

My Lords, I can announce the result of the election

Details of the votes cast are being made available

The successful candidate was Lord Fowler.

I am sure that the whole House will wish to join me

in offering our congratulations to the noble Lord, Lord Fowler,

on being elected Lord Speaker, and offering our support to him

as he prepares to take on his new role.

I would also like to offer on behalf of the House our thanks to my noble

friend Lord Cormack and to the noble Baroness Lady Garden for standing

Elections are only possible when there are candidates

and we are very grateful to you both as well.

He will know that he has the support of the entire House as it

And he will bring both his personality and his political

Can I just add, my Lords, that what we have seen today

This is the first time a man has been elected to the role

of Lord Speaker and I think nowadays there are few positions in public

I would like to thank the House very sincerely for the exceptional

support that they have given me, and to say that I will do my utmost

While I am somewhat sad to step down I do so in the sure knowledge that

you will be a most distinguished Lord Speaker and will bring

I know too that you will be wonderfully supported

by all the members of this House, by the administration,

Do join me for our next daily round-up.

Until then, from me, Keith Macdougall, goodbye.