27/11/2015 The Week in Parliament


27/11/2015

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Hello and Welcome to the Week In Parliament.

:00:11.:00:15.

The Prime Minister makes the case for bombing the terror

:00:16.:00:18.

If we won't not act now when our friend and ally France has been

:00:19.:00:28.

struck in this way, then our allies in the world can be forgiven for

:00:29.:00:31.

The Labour leader raises concerns about the proposed air strikes.

:00:32.:00:41.

The question must now be whdther extending the UK bombing from Iraq

:00:42.:00:44.

to Syria is likely to reducd or increase that threat.

:00:45.:00:46.

And as the Chancellor outlines his spending review, he pulls a tax

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I've listened to the concerns, I hear and understand them.

:00:50.:00:56.

Because I have been able to announce an improvement in the public

:00:57.:00:59.

finances, the simplest thing to do is not to phase these changds in,

:01:00.:01:02.

But first, a week in Westminster dominated by defence and Labour s

:01:03.:01:11.

It began on Monday with the Prime Minister setting out

:01:12.:01:17.

the national security stratdgy and plans for defence spendhng over

:01:18.:01:19.

He focused on counter-terrorism with the announcement that tp to

:01:20.:01:24.

10,000 troops could be deployed in the event of a Paris-style

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At its heart is an understanding that we cannot choose betwedn

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conventional defences against state-based threat on the one hand,

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or to counter threats that do not recognise national borders.

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Today we face both types of threat and must respond to both types.

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David Cameron also confirmed an extra ?12 billion of spending on

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defence equipment, which included two squadrons of F-35 jets for the

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Royal Navy's aircraft carridrs and nine new maritime patrol aircraft.

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And two new "strike brigades" will be created by 2025.

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Security and intelligence sdrvices are the pride of our countrx.

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They are the finest in the world this government will make stre stay

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that way, and using new economic strength we will help them to keep

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The Labour leader said his party's own review would

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"recognise that security is about much more than defence".

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We support the increased funding for security services bus the ptblic

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will not accept any more cuts to front line policing.

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The next day the SNP secured a debate on Trident.

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David Cameron had announced the government's commitment to

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the UK's nuclear deterrent in the defence review.

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There is no moral case for `ny state possessing weapons of mass to

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structuring. Possessing the wherewithal to destroy the world

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several times over and everxthing in it is not something to be proud of.

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Indeed, it is something I bdlieve to be deeply ashamed of.

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The nuclear deterrent works. It s deters aggression every single day.

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We have had many conference -- complex in the last six dec`des and

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not one has involved a direct conflict between nuclear st`tes Not

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one country under the protection of an extended nuclear armed brother

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has been invaded. But it is Labour's position

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that is more ambiguous. The Labour leader is against

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renewing the nuclear weapons system, It would be ludicrous to prdtend

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there aren't differences of opinion within the Parli`mentary

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Labour Party and the wider party on In the end, National Party

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conference and the National Policy Fortm

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decides what the Labour Party's approach to

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this will be in the future. This year's Labour Party Conference

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concluded there were more pressing

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contemporary motions to deb`te report reaffirms the party's support

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for the continuous deterrent. In the end the SNP motion w`s

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defeated by 330 votes, 264. On the Thursday and the primers delayed

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before MPs a detailed case for military action in Syria. Hd said he

:04:30.:04:34.

believed Britain had to strhke at the Syrian heartlands of thd terror

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group, Islamic State, to protect national security.

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Our police and security services have disrupted no fewer than seven

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Every one of which was either linked to Hsil

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I am in no doubt that it is in our national interest for action

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And stopping them means takhng action in Syria because it hs

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He said British forces had the unique capability to carry out

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dynamic targeted operations. us, then with

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our allies we should be part of that From this moral point comes

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a fundamental question, if we will not act now when

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our friend and ally France has been struck in this way, then our allies

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in the world could be forgiven We believe there are around 70, 00

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Syrian opposition fighters, principally the Free Syrian Army,

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who do not belong to extremhst groups and with whom we can

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coordinate attacks on Isil. We can't win simply

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from the air or purely military action alone, it requires

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a full political settlement. But the question is can we wait

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for that settlement He said there would be no vote in

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the House of Commons without a clear majority because he did not want a

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publicity coup for Islamic State. The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn

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announced in a letter to his MPs he could not support the Prime

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minister's position and votd for air strikes. But he restricted himself

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in the Commons to asking a number of questions of the Prime Minister

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whether extending the UK bombing from Iraq to Syria is

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likely to reduce or increasd that threat and whether it will counter

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or spread the terror campaign Isil is waging in the Middle East?

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How does he think that an extension of UK bombing will

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contribute to a conference of negotiated political settlement

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of the Syrian civil War, whhch is widely believed to be the only way

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to make sure of the defeat of Isil in the country?

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The Vienna conference last weekend was a good step forward

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In the light of the record of Western military intervention

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in recent years, including Hraq Afghanistan and Libya,

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does the Prime Minister accdpt that the UK bombing of Syria could risk

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more of what President Obam` called "unintended consequences"?

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I spoke to Peter Apps, Reutdrs global defence correspondent who is

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currently running the think,tank PS21, and to Josh Arnold-Forster,

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former special adviser to L`bour's defence secretary John Reid and now

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I began by asking Peter Apps about the move towards engagement

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Within Westminster there is going to be a counting of how many votes the

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Prime Minister thinks he has got, not just in the Conservativd party

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but with various Labour backbenchers. It'll be a re`l test

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of how persuasive Jeremy Corbyn can be. We will see how Labour shape

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their response. We do not know how much of a militant anti-war movement

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we will get and we need to know what will happen on the ground, hn

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Europe, or an extent of bombing it could change the narrative `nd put

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us in a different place. Wh`t is happening in the Labour Party now in

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Syria and also on their thinking on defence? There will be a lot of

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suspicion of what the Prime Minister had to say today. Questions will be

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asked to try and back up and establish how substantial is

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statement is. The extent to which they can be answered will play on

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that debate. Internally, thd Labour Party, as we know, has had ` great

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searching of souls about its role in conflict. What we are seeing now is

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a view from some in the party that we are being too reticent. That we

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need to step up and accept that while we may have made mist`kes it

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does not mean that we should stand away from these events. The likes of

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Mike Gates, Joe Cox, one of the key figures, what would Dan Jarvis be

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saying? That is a debate whhch is going on in internal in the party.

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In previous, under previous leaders, a line would have been set. The

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Shadow Cabinet would have mdt, the leader would have made his opinion

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known and that would have bden the end of it. But we live in dhfferent

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times. Jeremy Corbyn has a new style and we will see how it pans out Do

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you think the Labour Party hs a different party compared to what it

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was under Tony Blair? It is clearly a different party but also facing a

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different world. Under Tony Blair the United States was the

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pre-eminent superpower at the question was do we back the US or

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not? It is now a lot more dhfficult. We have a more confident Russia and

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China to take into account. The relationship with the White House is

:09:59.:10:02.

different. Cameron is taking a line that we should deal with Ishs first

:10:03.:10:08.

and the future President Assad is less important. Not necessarily what

:10:09.:10:13.

the State Department things. And we have got tension with Russi` and

:10:14.:10:18.

that puts questions like Trhdent and the big defence questions which are

:10:19.:10:20.

more difficult than they were 1 years ago. You mentioned Trhdent and

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we saw a debate on that this week in Parliament. At the moment what is

:10:26.:10:32.

Labour's thinking on that policy? I am not sure Labour has a thhnking on

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it. There are several good arguments. One is that strahns are

:10:36.:10:40.

rising with Russia and you need a weapon like Trident as a last

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resort. The other argument which is arguably valid is in a world which

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is getting closer to war, m`ybe Britain should get out of that game.

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They are both persuasive. Jdremy Corbyn is very much on one side and

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a large chunk of the Labour Party is on the other side. That is not

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limited to Labour. The Liberal Democrats have bad and even the

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Tories as well. The issue is, located and the GMB is in f`vour of

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Trident. Unite, we are not sure -- issue is difficult. There whll be an

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interesting dilemma if the party in the end comes down in favour of

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renewing the deterrent and ht is led by a prime minister that sahd he

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would not use it. That is an interesting challenge for the party.

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In the end this debate, although jobs and electro considerathons will

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be important, in the end it is about strategy and as Peter said, the rise

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of Russia, how they had beh`ved it has a singer that the impact on the

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internal debate in the partx as well as the broader national one. And

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Russia is intimately tied to the Syria conflict. How it works out in

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Syria will shape the Russian relationship going forward. Thank

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you. On Wednesday, the Chancellor

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delivered his Autumn Statemdnt, and Spending Review for the next five

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years. abandoning his planned cuts to tax

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credits after a better-than,expected economic forecast from the Office

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for Budget Responsibility. Our Parliamentary Correspondent Sean

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Curran was watching. George Osborne's favourite rule

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in politics, according to a former aide, is you have to know how

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to count. The numbers seemed to work

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in the Chancellor's favour The Commons was packed

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for the Autumn Statement After Mr Osborne's plans to cut

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tax credits were rejected bx the House of Lords and spectlation

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about cuts to police budgets, Statement,

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the Chancellor of the Exchepuer I've listened to the concerns,

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I hear and understand them and because I've been able to

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announce today an improvement in the public finances, the simplest thing

:12:46.:12:48.

to do is not to phase the changes Also time for a dig

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at the opposition. I have had representations

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from the Shadow Home Secret`ry that the

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police budget should be cut by 0%. But now is not the time

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for further police cuts. Now is the time to back

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our police and give them I am today announcing that

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there will be no cuts It emerged that there had bden

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an upturn So, the Chancellor had monex

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to spend. As a result of

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our commitment to those who worked hard all their lives and contributed

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to society, I can confirm ndxt year the basic state pension will rise

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by ?3.35 up to ?119.30 per week It is the biggest real

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terms increase to the basic 300,000 people have signed `

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petition arguing that no VAT should We already charge

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the lowest 5% rate allowabld under European law and we are comlitted to

:13:58.:14:02.

getting the EU to change its rules. Until that happens I'm going to use

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the ?15 million in year raised from the tampon tax to fund women's

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health charities We will be spending over ?5 billion

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on road maintenance in this parliament

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and thanks to the incessant lobbying of my honourable friend

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for Northampton North, Brit`in now Labour's Shadow Chancellor was not

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impressed. The fiasco over tax credits,

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demonstrated once and for all how The Chancellor remains commhtted to

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?12 billion of welfare cuts over We know where they will fall, on the

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most vulnerable, the poorest and Then came this, the comment on

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Sino-British relations. A quote from Mao, rarely done in

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this chamber. "We must learn to do economhc work

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from all who know how. "We must esteem them as teachers,

:15:26.:15:36.

learning from them, "But we must not pretend to

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know what we do not know." I thought it would come in handy

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for him in his new relationship The Shadow Chancellor liter`lly

:15:48.:15:51.

stood at the dispatch box and read out from Mao's Little Red

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Book. The problem is half the

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Shadow Cabinet have been sent Now a look at the other stories

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in Westminster. Usually the main parliament`ry event

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of the week, Prime Minister's question time was instead the

:16:29.:16:35.

warm-up act to the Autumn Statement. The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn

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focused on the issue The gap between

:16:39.:16:40.

Britain's 2020 target and otr share of renewable energy is the

:16:41.:16:43.

biggest in the European union. Some of his decisions he has madd

:16:44.:16:50.

recently such as cutting support for solar panels on home and industrial

:16:51.:16:53.

projects, scrapping the Gredn Deal, cutting support from wind ttrbines,

:16:54.:16:56.

putting a new tax on renewable subsidies for diesel, is it any

:16:57.:17:06.

wonder that the chief scientistat the United Nations environmdnt

:17:07.:17:12.

programme has criticised Britain for going

:17:13.:17:13.

backwards on renewable energy? The facts paint a different picture As

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I said, trebling of wind power in the last Parliament. That is an

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enormous investment. And also he makes the point about solar panels.

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Of course when the cost of manufacturing solar panels plummets

:17:24.:17:26.

as it has it is right to reduce the The Northern Ireland Secret`ry urged

:17:27.:17:29.

MPs to rush through new leghslation to introduce welfare reforms

:17:30.:17:36.

in Northern Ireland to avoid the risk of the power-sharing

:17:37.:17:38.

assembly collapsing. There's been

:17:39.:17:45.

a long-running stand-off at Stormont due to the refusal of Sinn Fein and

:17:46.:17:47.

the SDLP to agree to welfard reforms But the changes will now be brought

:17:48.:17:51.

in by Westminster, along with ?585 million worth of

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measures to mitigate the effect on I believe that it is necessary to

:17:57.:17:59.

adopt this fast-track procedure to ensure that welfare reform hs no

:18:00.:18:05.

longer an issue which is undermining the political

:18:06.:18:09.

process in Northern Ireland as it the agreement that was reached

:18:10.:18:12.

at Stormont last Tuesday. And I believe it is necessary that

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we take this approach to underpin the stability and indeed

:18:29.:18:31.

the survival of power-sharing We will not be opposing this

:18:32.:18:33.

legislation as we are of the view that the dangers

:18:34.:18:36.

of an agreement not being rdached are huge with potential restoration

:18:37.:18:39.

of direct rule. And finally, in what emerged

:18:40.:18:43.

as a very personal debate, Labour's Liam Byrne explaindd to MPs

:18:44.:18:49.

why he believed the children I think in many ways this is

:18:50.:18:52.

the hardest speech I have ever made This is the first time that I have

:18:53.:18:56.

talked publicly about being And I know all too well the feeling

:18:57.:19:05.

that most children of alcoholics have as they try to wrestle with why

:19:06.:19:14.

they can't fix things, Children of alcoholics are five

:19:15.:19:18.

times more likely to develop Children of alcoholics are

:19:19.:19:24.

something like three times lore And children of alcoholics `re three

:19:25.:19:28.

times to four times more likely to Now, dimwit, twerp,

:19:29.:19:36.

miserable pipsqueak. All examples

:19:37.:19:44.

of very unparliamentary language The Labour MP John Woodcock tested

:19:45.:19:46.

the boundaries during the ddbate on Trident, when he refused to take

:19:47.:19:52.

an intervention from members I was just explaining the tdrrible,

:19:53.:19:55.

disgraceful mess that they `re making of schools

:19:56.:20:04.

in Scotland where the poorest I would have been happy to take

:20:05.:20:07.

every single one of you robots Can we have some clarificathon

:20:08.:20:18.

on whether the charming expression robot is

:20:19.:20:42.

parliamentary language or not? Yes, yes, Mr Nicolson,

:20:43.:20:51.

I was just turning over in my mind whether the description

:20:52.:20:54.

robot for a member of this House would be considered to be ddrogatory

:20:55.:20:58.

and I have come to the conclusion that in some circumstances ht might,

:20:59.:21:06.

and in some it might not. And for the moment I am concluding

:21:07.:21:17.

for my own peace of mind th`t intelligent robot and therefore

:21:18.:21:30.

for the moment I will not c`ll him But I'm sure the House will be

:21:31.:21:37.

warned that any term which hs considered in any way derog`tory

:21:38.:21:40.

of an honourable member of this House will not be allowed and I will

:21:41.:21:45.

be listening very carefully I am happy to refer to them

:21:46.:21:51.

as honourable robots 25 years ago this month

:21:52.:21:58.

the Conservative Party toppled the She had won three general elections,

:21:59.:22:08.

but had lost the confidence This weekend, BBC Parliament is

:22:09.:22:13.

marking that anniversary and looking back at the Thatcher years with one

:22:14.:22:16.

of her closest lieutenants, He is presenting an evening

:22:17.:22:19.

of programmes: leaving Downing Street after she was

:22:20.:22:22.

fired by her own party. Despite our rows she always

:22:23.:22:31.

remained a friend to me. In her latter years she had

:22:32.:22:34.

finally run out of other frhends. Airey Neave, Ian Gow, Nigel Lawson,

:22:35.:22:38.

Geoffrey Howe, Nationalised industries that once

:22:39.:22:42.

consumed wealth now create ht. Our industrial relations,

:22:43.:22:53.

once the worst The Falkland Islanders remahn

:22:54.:22:56.

British and free. But only for Blair and Brown

:22:57.:23:07.

to spend us back into debt. As

:23:08.:23:13.

a Tory party leader she reached deep into Labour's electoral territory,

:23:14.:23:15.

making tenants homeowners, As a woman she demonstrated that

:23:16.:23:17.

even 30 or 40 years ago a woman could rise to the top

:23:18.:23:22.

if she was good enough. Yet somehow she fell,

:23:23.:23:25.

demonstrating at the end th`t no man And to lose all one's friends is not

:23:26.:23:28.

a sign of strength And you can watch Tebbit on Thatcher

:23:29.:23:35.

on BBC Parliament on Saturd`y It will also be available on the BBC

:23:36.:23:46.

iPlayer. Now, time for a look

:23:47.:23:50.

at what's been happening in the Here's Kate Wonell with

:23:51.:23:53.

our countdown. Christmas is just a month away

:23:54.:24:03.

and if you are wondering wh`t to get the political but artistic `norak

:24:04.:24:07.

in your life look no further. The Jeremy Corbyn Colouring

:24:08.:24:10.

Book is now on sale. Plans for a David Cameron

:24:11.:24:14.

colouring book remain unconfirmed. For the political but shoeldss

:24:15.:24:18.

anorak, the perfect gift. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is

:24:19.:24:22.

auctioning a pair of shoes on eBay. Proceeds from the sale of hhs size

:24:23.:24:27.

11s go to the Small Steps project. Scottish opposition parties have

:24:28.:24:31.

criticised the SNP's Alex S`lmond for unveiling a portrait of him

:24:32.:24:35.

self in Edinburgh on the dax MPs The SNP says its

:24:36.:24:38.

Foreign Affairs Spokesman w`s Six ex-MPs including former

:24:39.:24:44.

Conservative leader William Hague That brings the total on thd

:24:45.:24:49.

Ermine-O-Meter to 834 and counting. And the by-election for a ndw Tory

:24:50.:24:57.

hereditary peer to sit in the Lords has been won by Lord Fairfax

:24:58.:25:00.

of Cameron. The Earl of Limerick's manifesto

:25:01.:25:05.

in verse failed to close qu`rters. Our version of a verse from the Earl

:25:06.:25:10.

of Limerick. Do join us for our daily rotnd-up

:25:11.:25:36.

of what's going on in Westmhnster. But for now, from me,

:25:37.:25:41.

Georgina Pattinson, goodbye.

:25:42.:25:47.

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