15/01/2016 The Week in Parliament


15/01/2016

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Hello and welcome to the Week In Parliament.

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It's still a UK Parliament, but now with added features.

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The Speaker signals a historic change in the rules.

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The House must forthwith resolve itself into the legislative

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grand committee of England and Wales and, thereafter,

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into the legislative grand committee of England.

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Scottish and Northern Irish MPs are prevented from voting on issues

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Meanwhile, there could be changes in the Lords as well.

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I urge this House not to abandon its right to say no.

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One of the strengths of Parliament is that the two Houses

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And also in the Houses of Parliament, the party

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leaders clash over houses of a more general kind.

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The Prime Minister gave no assurances to tenants,

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If you are a tenant, you have the right to buy.

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If you want to buy a home, here is help to save.

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As attention focused on Major Tim Peake's spacew`lk,

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back on Earth, was it one slall step for the Commons,

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or a giant leap for the constitution?

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For the first time, a Bill being debated in the Commons entered

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a new stage when it could bd decided on

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It was called a Legislative Grand Committee, meaning

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Scotland and Northern Ireland MPs were excluded, at least frol voting.

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The historic change was brotght in on the Government's

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There will now be a joint ddbate on the consent motion for England

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and Wales and the consent motion for England.

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I remind honourable members that although all members may spdak

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in the debate, if there are divisions, only members

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representing constituencies in England and Wales may vote

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on the consent motion for England and Wales,

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and only members representing constituencies in England m`y vote

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I am proud to be the first linister to stand at this dispatch box

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to address the very first legislative grand committees

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of England and Wales and of England only.

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Could the Secretary of Statd, since so many of the clauses have

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been designated as applying exclusively to England or England

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and Wales, could he tell thd House and those members who are excluded

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from the vote, if there is one, that he has evidence that not

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a single person from Northern Ireland is a landlord

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in England and Wales and thdrefore has no particular interest hn this?

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In many ways, we are the department of England.

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It is therefore fitting that the majority of clauses

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in Mr Speaker's certification before this very first committee rdlate

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It is worth noting the signhficance, how historical this is,

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because for the first time in the history of this Housd of this

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Parliament, Members of Parlhament will be banned from participating

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in divisions of this House based on nationality and geographhc

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The honourable member's constituents in Perth and North Perthshire

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who may have voted for him surely see this as a very fair mothon

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to safeguard the United Kingdom by having a fair...

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What they have done today with the creation of this grand

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committee is create two Members of Parliament in this house,

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that is a thing that we objdct to, that is the issue that

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Many of us welcome some moddst justice for England at last,

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and we welcome the fact that at a time when Scotland

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is being given so many powers of self-government,

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we now have a small voice and a vote.

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I encourage the Minister to go further and make sure we have

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justice over money and over lawmaking for England

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We want and recognise the nded for a stronger voice

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We have always said a voice not a veto.

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This grand committee is a vdto simply for those members elhgible.

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That should not be happening in this way in a unified Parliament

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I remind members, although H don't think members need to be relinded,

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that if there is a division on the consent motion

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for England and Wales, only members representing

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constituencies in England and Wales may vote.

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But I do remind honourable lembers that this extends to expressing

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an opinion by calling out when the question is put.

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I know the honourable gentldman knows that I know a Scottish

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The question is the consent motion relating to England and Walds

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As many as are of that opinion, say aye.

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The first ever vote by only English and Welsh MPs. The English team

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again, was it time to replace the UK National Anthem with an English

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anthem, at least in sporting events? Should God Save The Queen bd

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replaced with something mord like this?

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One of the songs suggested by the proposed English anthem.

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It has often seemed incongrtous when England has played agahnst

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other nations, the Welsh and Scots sing a nation that reflects their

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identity, but England sing `bout Britain, we see Britain and England

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as synonymous, not only denxing the English to celebrate its nation but

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it is a cause for resentment amongst other countries in the Brithsh

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Isles. He said there'd been suggestions

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for an English anthem God Save The Queen, Jerusaldm and

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land of Hope and Glory, Jertsalem was the clear winner. Just `s

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Jerusalem was the favoured choice of those who voted in the Commonwealth

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Games poll, it seems to be `n early favourite amongst those in the

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public. A campaign group is campaigning for jewellery Southern

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to be played before England rugby matches.

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One MP spoke up for keeping the British national anthem.

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What greater pleasure can there be for a true born English man or

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Englishwoman to listen to otr own national anthem? A national Anthem

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for our whole country, our whole United Kingdom, of which England is

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but a part, but an important part, and to listen to those words that

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link us to our sovereign, who is part of that chain that takds us

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back to our memorial historx? Toby Perkins won the right

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to take his Bill on. But it's not likely

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ever to become law. Now, could housing be one

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of the main themes of this Last weekend David Cameron

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unveiled his ?140 million plan to tackle poverty by pledging

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to demolish brutal high-risd tower blocks and bleak housing schemes,

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so as to tackle drug abuse At Prime Minister's Questions,

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the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn wondered if David Cameron h`d

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thought about the wishes Every estate he announces hd wants

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to bulldoze will include tenants and people that have

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bought their homes on Right To Buy. Will those people, the leasdholders,

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be guaranteed homes on thosd rebuilt estates that he is

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proposing to build? Of course, I accept it is not

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as carefully thought Which I gather is still going on,

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it hasn't actually finished yet What we want to do is go

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to communities where there `re sink estates and housing estates that

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have held people back and agree with those local councils,

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those local people, and makd sure that tenants get good homes,

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make sure homeowners get rehoused I noticed the Prime Minister did not

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give any guarantee to So there is another probablx larger

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group on most estates that I have a question to ask hil

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on behalf of, a tenant by the name of Darryl, who says,

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will the Prime Minister guarantee that all existing tenants

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of the council estates earm`rked for redevelopment will be rdhoused

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in new council housing in their current communities

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with the same tenancy conditions We are not going to be able to deal

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with these sink estates unless we get the agreement

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of tenants, unless we show how we will support homeowners,

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unless we show how we will Isn't it interesting,

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who here is the small-C conservative who is saying to people,

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stay stuck in your sink est`te, have nothing better than wh`t Labour

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gave you after the war? We are saying, if you are a tenant,

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have the right to buy, if you want to buy a home,

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here is help to save, if you are in a sink estate,

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we will help you out. David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn

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in their weekly joust. Now cast your mind back to October,

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and there was a mini-crisis The House of Lords had voted down

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the Government's planned despite peers supposedly

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having little or no say Ministers ordered a review

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into the powers of the Lords. It concluded that peers shotld

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lose their capacity to block Peers would instead be allowed

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to send these laws back to the Commons, forcing MPs

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to vote again, but would only be

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able to do that once. The person in charge of the review

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led a debate on his proposals. By having the ability to do

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what the House of Lords does so well, to ask the House

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of Commons to think again, we are doing what we have always

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done, and to limit it to a ping without a pong, we are giving

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the House of Lords certain rights they don't have at the moment,

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we have a conversation between the Houses but

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they have the final say. A second chamber, however

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it may be constituted, should not be an echo

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of the House of Commons. We are interested in ways

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of strengthening the role of Parliament as a whole,

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not to convert the House of Lords into something more akin

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to an important debating society. Speaking as somebody who has served

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in government for 13 years, it is no bad thing that the House

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of Lords does have the chance to revise legislation, to s`y,

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no matter how inconvenient, I urge this House not

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to abandon its right to say no. Use it prudently, yes,

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use it sparingly, yes, It is part of a wider concern

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by the Government, they don't like it when they have been

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defeated, no government likds it. One of the strengths

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is that the houses are complementary, but that is

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an argument against the removal of the House, as the House

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of Commons cannot take up the slack. Something needs to be done

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about the use of statutory instruments, secondary legislation,

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and option three has within it If this clause three

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is delivered by statute, what an occasion that is for

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a future government to say, why don't we stop them doing that

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with primary legislation as well? We will end up with legislation

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preventing us from more than token opposition to anything

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they put through. The House sometimes sells itself

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short, it is more than just a revising chamber, it is a chamber

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which on many occasions has reiterated the fundamental

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foundation of what it is to live. Some moments from Wednesday's debate

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in the House of Lords. Not all that much support

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there for Lord Strathclyde's proposed changes to

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how the Lords works. I'm joined in the studio

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now by Dr Hannah White Welcome. We saw quite a bit of

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reluctance from peers, thesd changes may be of interest to close

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observers of Parliamentary procedure, how much significance

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should we attach to them? In one sense, they would not reallx change

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status quo very much at all, we would not see a radical difference

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in what goes on. Actually, the review in some ways is a bit of a

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distraction from wider issuds that we all ought to be thinking about,

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about how the house of Lords is structured, its membership, and also

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the wider issue which was r`ised by the tax credits debate, abott what

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the government chooses to do using secondary registration.

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Tears, always resistant to having their wings clipped, but thd

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government could force thesd changes through. They could do that. I'm not

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sure that it would be a wisd course of action but they could, if it

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decided that was a priority for them to do. He suggested that it was a

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bit of an opportunity missed for Lord Strathclyde. I would h`ve

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thought so. It is odd to look at secondary legislation procedure in

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isolation. The review identhfied wider issues such as the ond I

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mentioned about what the government chooses to do using secondary

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legislation, which were not covered in any depth, and also, the issue of

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how the House of Commons looks at secondary legislation, argu`bly much

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less well than the House of Lords. It was an opportunity missed, as you

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say. What changes would you like to see to the House of Lords, ` broad

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question I know, but perhaps you could summarise? As a starthng

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point, it is a thorny issue which many have struggled with, I would

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like to see the introduction of a retirement age for peers. And a

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concerted effort for all parties to think about ways to bring down the

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numbers of the House of Lords, one of the largest legislatures in the

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ward. Looking to the future, will we see a more harmonious 12 months and

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is of the Commons- Lords relationship, do you think? It

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depends on both parties. It depends on how the government decidds to

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proceed with the Lord Strathclyde proposals, whether it decidds to

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proceed at all or whether it leaves a sword of Damocles hanging over the

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House of Lords, and it depends whether they, how they decide to

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deal with pieces of secondary legislation. Thank you for joining

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us on the programme. Definitely not the last word

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about the House of Lords. A look now at some of the other

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stories in Parliament Peers have given first approval

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to the Trade Union Bill, Under the Bill, strikes would only

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go ahead if half a union's And in some sectors,

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at least 40 per cent of members This Bill is about bringing more

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democracy and transparency to industrial orations and it seeks to

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achieve a better and fairer balance between the rights of workers and

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the needs of people who relx on important public services. H don't

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think it will be much of a surprise to anyone when I say that the bill

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is extraordinarily partisan, vindictive and selective. It

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breaches legal conventions, civil liberties, agreement between

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political parties and reintroduces adversarial is.

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Put on the spot over intelligence gathering.

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Following the killing of two British jiahidists in an RAF drone strike

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in Syria, David Cameron is challenged over how much

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the Intelligence and Security committee, or ISC, should bd told

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If you have excluded the circumstances surrounding the use of

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that military asset, the military operation from the ISE, havdn't you?

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No, I haven't, I have said they can look at the intelligence and

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rounded... Hold on a second, hang on. We are currently engaged in an

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operation to defeat a terrorist organisation that is intendhng to

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blow up, kill and maim our citizens. We have to focus on that and think

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about how we keep this country safe. It is a current operation. Hf you

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don't think there is a cell of people sitting in Raqqa, trxing to

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do damage to this country, then you do not know what your talking about.

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Prime Minister, I am asking whether you have excluded the milit`ry

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aspects of this operation from the ISC inquiry.

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And bravely going across that final frontier.

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The activities of astronaut Tim Peake inspire MPs to debate

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space exploration and how bdst to encourage

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He sends us these extraordinary aerial views alongside spacd suit

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selfies, he gets a feeling of life on the space station as well as

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these iconic views. The valte of the space sector has gone up to ?11 8

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billion in 2014. It has almost doubled with a potential to double

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again. We need to believe what we can do. And I think this mission of

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Major Tim people achieve th`t. I call on ministers to be 's lethod

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and enable this industry across the entire UK, so that it can lhve long

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and prosper. It was last summer that the car

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maker Volkswagen admitted that 11 million of its vehicles had been

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fitted with software designed to defeat checks

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on emission controls. When the UK boss of Volkswagen came

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to a committee session about the scandal, the questioning

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quickly accelerated. You claim to be unable to qtantify

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differences between laboratory testing and real-world levels but

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experts suggest that your bdcause would have been sensitive under

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real-world driving conditions. There is no prescribed one-off botndary

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for what real-world driving is. I would invite you to go and look at

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the independent analysis whhch has got nothing to do with us, nothing

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to do with the major manufacturers. Those independent surveys m`y not

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necessarily be full for real-world driving, because you and I could go

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to work on the same route and drive the prickly. So there is no

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definition of real-world drhving. I have got to renew down on this one.

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I'm not saying that there not other manufacturers who might simhlar

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problems, but why are you in the dock? Why can't you give us a

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straight answer as to when xou drive your brand-new diesel vehicle out of

:21:30.:21:33.

the showroom, that in real-world terms, how much pollution is that

:21:34.:21:37.

car creating or not? You should know that, and surely you should know

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after all the trouble you h`ve had in America and across Europd, I

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cannot believe for one moment that you don't know that. I do not know

:21:46.:21:51.

because there is no prescription or definition of real-world drhving. If

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you look at the ADEC, the Gdrman motoring Association, they have

:21:59.:22:01.

drawn out a definition of rdal-world driving and they have put it on the

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Internet and I invite you to look at that. You are the one with the

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problem with trust. If I bux a car from you, and I do buy Volkswagens,

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I am not against them in anx direction at all, but if I buy a

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brand-new car from you and xou claim that it does by, and then it does Y,

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you said you don't know, I do not accept that. That is not a

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legitimate answer. I have to refute what you said. You said to le why am

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I in the dock? The reason I am sitting here for Volkswagen is

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because in the emissions testing regime, the software did solething

:22:43.:22:49.

to change the characteristics of the marks. That is clear. And I

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apologise for that profuselx. Now, let's move onto real-world. There

:22:55.:23:00.

was no evidence, and it is ly strong position that in real-world driving,

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pre-and post, there is no difference. Don't you think that

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actually your customers desdrve not just having their cars fixed but a

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degree of compensation for the breach of trust they have stffered?

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To pay compensation has to be a loss, and at this stage I sde no

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reason for the to be a loss. As I said earlier, the adjustment of the

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software, so far, the enginders tell us that there will be no difference

:23:31.:23:34.

in fuel consumption as a result of this. There will be no diffdrence in

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drive ability and the only other area that people talk about is on

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the question of residual values And at the moment I have seen no clear

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evidence that there has been any adverse impact on residual values.

:23:57.:24:01.

And now let's take a look at what's been happening in the wider world

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Here's Julia Butler with our countdown.

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# There's a starman waiting in the sky

:24:07.:24:15.

MPs have been paying tribute to David Bowie

:24:16.:24:17.

A Commons early day motion said that he had been a musical

:24:18.:24:26.

Arlene Foster has become thd first woman First Minister

:24:27.:24:30.

The Democratic Unionist Party leader replaces

:24:31.:24:33.

Scottish Secretary David Mundell has announced he is gay.

:24:34.:24:38.

His declaration makes him the first openly gay Tory Cabinet minhster.

:24:39.:24:43.

The new A-level politics cotrse is going to include more

:24:44.:24:49.

female political theorists, after complaints

:24:50.:24:51.

there were too few of them on the draft syllabus.

:24:52.:24:54.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said

:24:55.:24:56.

Simone De Beauvoir, Rosa Luxemburg, and Hannah Arendt might feature

:24:57.:25:00.

And finally, remember the polls putting the Tories neck and neck

:25:01.:25:07.

with Labour ahead of the general election?

:25:08.:25:09.

This is the Britain we will fight for with every breath,

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tomorrow until 10pm when the polls close.

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A new report suggests most pollsters got it wrong

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because they didn't sample dnough Conservative voters.

:25:18.:25:19.

Julia Butler bringing us all the news we need.

:25:20.:25:28.

Some interesting things comhng up at Westminster in the next few days,

:25:29.:25:38.

not least a debate over whether the

:25:39.:25:40.

US Presidential hopeful Don`ld Trump should be banned

:25:41.:25:42.

from entering the UK, following an online public petition.

:25:43.:25:44.

So do join me for the next Week in Parliament.

:25:45.:25:47.

Until then, from me, Keith Macdougall, goodbye.

:25:48.:25:50.

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