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Adjournment debate on Wednesday, 2 April 2008, in the House of Commons, led by Pete Wishart. The answering member was David Cairns.

Scotland Act 1998

Westminster Hall adjournment debate on a review of the Scotland Act 1998.

Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
474 c270-96WH 
Session
2007-08
Department
Scotland Office
Chamber / Committee
Westminster Hall
Proceeding contributions
Anne Begg | 474 c281WH (Link to this contribution) As indeed they were all through the convention process. I am sure that it will not be long before th...
Anne Begg | 474 c281WH (Link to this contribution) I am not surprised, because I do not think that the SNP has ever taken workers' rights seriously. On...
Show all contributions (152)
Anne Moffat | 474 c281WH (Link to this contribution) On the issue of the STUC and the trade union movement in Scotland, is my hon. Friend aware that when...
Anne Begg | 474 c281WH (Link to this contribution) One of the main reasons why Scotland is a stronger part of the United Kingdom has to do with those d...
Jim McGovern | 474 c281WH (Link to this contribution) On the subject of engaging with various organisations, my hon. Friend may be aware that the Select C...
Anne Begg | 474 c282WH (Link to this contribution) I would normally take an intervention from the hon. Gentleman, but I have used all my time. To sum ...
Gordon Banks | 474 c282-3WH (Link to this contribution) I will come to my involvement with the national conversation in a moment, so I hope that the hon. Ge...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 474 c283WH (Link to this contribution) I will take this opportunity to dissociate myself—as I am sure that my party would—from anybody who ...
Gordon Banks | 474 c282WH (Link to this contribution) John Smith referred to devolution as unfinished business, and he was right. As we have heard, my nei...
Pete Wishart | 474 c282WH (Link to this contribution) I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman has actually read the national conversation, but it would b...
Gordon Banks | 474 c283WH (Link to this contribution) I am certainly willing to sit down if there are any takers for another intervention—no, I did not th...
Adam Ingram | 474 c283WH (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend gave a very interesting list of the rhetoric that is used. I draw his attention to th...
Gordon Banks | 474 c283WH (Link to this contribution) What I support—I will come to this as well—is the commission's right to do its job and not to go in ...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 474 c283WH (Link to this contribution) I am very impressed by the hon. Gentleman's knowledge of the national conversation website—I have se...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 474 c284WH (Link to this contribution) I hear what the hon. Gentleman says, and he claims to stand for Scotland. Will he therefore support ...
Gordon Banks | 474 c284WH (Link to this contribution) The Scottish Executive has more than double the money that Donald Dewar had in 1999. For the First M...
Russell Brown | 474 c284WH (Link to this contribution) In response to the question from the hon. Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Mr. MacNeil), let me say ...
Gordon Banks | 474 c284-5WH (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes extremely good sense and I think that the whole of Scotland wants to know what ...
Gordon Banks | 474 c283-4WH (Link to this contribution) I have already asked the hon. Gentleman to be patient. He will hear what Gordon from Ochil—and South...
Speaker | 474 c285WH (Link to this contribution) Order. We have eight minutes before I must call the Front-Bench spokesmen and four more Members have...
Willie Rennie | 474 c285-6WH (Link to this contribution) This has been a rather cathartic experience. Often it is only every five weeks that we get to debate...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 474 c287WH (Link to this contribution) I do not know anything about that website—everything that the hon. Gentleman is saying is news to me...
Eric Joyce | 474 c287WH (Link to this contribution) Need we say more? Perhaps the hon. Gentleman will ask the leader of his party whether he will disass...
Eric Joyce | 474 c286-7WH (Link to this contribution) No, because I only have two minutes. Secondly, the way in which the nationalist conversation is bei...
Willie Rennie | 474 c286WH (Link to this contribution) No, because I only have two minutes. It should be recognised that the pro-independence parties—Tomm...
Eric Joyce | 474 c286WH (Link to this contribution) I congratulate the hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire (Pete Wishart) on securing this debate...
Alistair Carmichael | 474 c287WH (Link to this contribution) That is exactly what the hon. Gentleman said, and he can check it tomorrow morning. The commission h...
Alistair Carmichael | 474 c287WH (Link to this contribution) I understand that the Front-Bench spokespersons have kindly agreed to give up a couple of minutes, t...
Alistair Carmichael | 474 c288WH (Link to this contribution) No, I do not have time; the hon. Gentleman has wasted enough time already. It is surely axiomatic th...
Alistair Carmichael | 474 c288WH (Link to this contribution) The people have decided; they decided last May and his party got 20 per cent. of the electorate's vo...
Alistair Carmichael | 474 c288WH (Link to this contribution) I am sorry, Mrs. Dean. I think that you were quite right to castigate the hon. Member for Na h-Eilea...
Speaker | 474 c288WH (Link to this contribution) Has the hon. Gentleman finished?
Alan Reid | 474 c288-9WH (Link to this contribution) I congratulate the hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire (Pete Wishart) on securing the debate....
Speaker | 474 c288WH (Link to this contribution) Before I call the Front Bench spokesmen, I want to say that there is too much talking from a sedenta...
Eric Joyce | 474 c289WH (Link to this contribution) I will be as quick as I can. The hon. Gentleman said that there should be no return of powers to Wes...
Alan Reid | 474 c289WH (Link to this contribution) I am afraid the hon. Gentleman is labouring under a misunderstanding. We have never given that commi...
Adam Ingram | 474 c289WH (Link to this contribution) My understanding is that the hon. Gentleman supports the presence of Faslane in his constituency. Do...
Alan Reid | 474 c289WH (Link to this contribution) I will reiterate what I have said; the Liberal Democrats do not support any transfer of powers from ...
Pete Wishart | 474 c289WH (Link to this contribution) This all seems to be quite a bit of a shambles; hon. Members cannot agree among themselves about the...
Alan Reid | 474 c289WH (Link to this contribution) No, I disagree with the right hon. Gentleman. I believe in democracy and the decentralisation of pow...
Alan Reid | 474 c290WH (Link to this contribution) Yes, my hon. Friend is quite correct. I remember the process that the constitutional convention unde...
Alistair Carmichael | 474 c290WH (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend recall that at the start of the constitutional convention process in the 1990s, ...
Alan Reid | 474 c289WH (Link to this contribution) That is typical of SNP members: they take the ball away; they will not participate in the discussion...
Pete Wishart | 474 c289WH (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman answer my question?
Ben Wallace | 474 c276WH (Link to this contribution) Perhaps I could help the hon. Gentleman by clarifying what the hon. Member for Dumfries and Galloway...
Pete Wishart | 474 c276WH (Link to this contribution) I find the hon. Gentleman's intervention curious. He and I were both at the debate yesterday and hea...
Gordon Banks | 474 c276WH (Link to this contribution) In that case, the hon. Gentleman obviously does not agree with the chairman of the commission, who s...
Pete Wishart | 474 c276-7WH (Link to this contribution) We do not know. The hon. Member for Midlothian (Mr. Hamilton) would certainly like to test that prop...
Eric Joyce | 474 c277WH (Link to this contribution) I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman saw his party leader being interviewed by Andrew Marr on Su...
Pete Wishart | 474 c277WH (Link to this contribution) Absolutely. Our preference is for a yes-no referendum, but if it is to be a multi-option referendum,...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 474 c277WH (Link to this contribution) Does that not show the difference between the approach of the Scottish National party and that of th...
Pete Wishart | 474 c277WH (Link to this contribution) I could not agree more. My hon. Friend makes a powerful point. It is we who believe in letting the S...
Pete Wishart | 474 c275-6WH (Link to this contribution) In that case, I am desperately trying to understand what that point was about. In a debate yesterday...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 474 c278WH (Link to this contribution) I am struck by the impatience of the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties to get on with a referendum...
Anne Begg | 474 c278-9WH (Link to this contribution) Before anyone thinks that the hon. Gentleman's interpretation of what I said is correct, I have just...
Alistair Carmichael | 474 c278WH (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Lady not agree, having endured so many lectures from the SNP over the years about the ...
Anne Begg | 474 c278WH (Link to this contribution) I always look to the hon. Gentleman to sum things up succinctly. He does so in a far better way that...
Pete Wishart | 474 c278WH (Link to this contribution) I said that I would not give way again. I want to ensure that everyone else has time to contribute t...
Anne Begg | 474 c278WH (Link to this contribution) The tradition is to thank the hon. Member who initiates such debates. Indeed, I do thank the hon. Me...
Pete Wishart | 474 c278WH (Link to this contribution) I know that the hon. Gentleman has all my albums, so I am grateful for that. Does he not realise tha...
Ben Wallace | 474 c278WH (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
David Hamilton | 474 c277WH (Link to this contribution) On three occasions the hon. Gentleman has said that I, the hon. Member for Midlothian, am involved i...
Pete Wishart | 474 c277WH (Link to this contribution) I will give way one more time and then conclude my speech.
Anne Begg | 474 c280WH (Link to this contribution) Unlike the hon. Gentleman, I was involved in a lot of the discussion leading up to the Act. I campai...
Jim Devine | 474 c281WH (Link to this contribution) To summarise, is it not the case that we have great pride in Scotland? What we do not have is the pr...
Anne Begg | 474 c281WH (Link to this contribution) Indeed. The reason for pride in Scotland and Scottish values is that we listen to and engage with ot...
Pete Wishart | 474 c279WH (Link to this contribution) I have no idea what that has to do with the renewal of the Scotland Act 1998 but, when it comes to A...
Speaker | 474 c279WH (Link to this contribution) Order. May I bring Members back to the subject, which is the wider issue of Scotland?
Anne Begg | 474 c279-80WH (Link to this contribution) I take what you say, Mrs. Dean. In Aberdeen and elsewhere, when my colleagues and I and the Liberals...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 474 c280WH (Link to this contribution) I am intrigued. Is the hon. Lady telling us that she would like an increase in the powers held by th...
Anne Begg | 474 c279WH (Link to this contribution) I am so happy to answer that, because when Labour left office five years ago in Aberdeen, we left a ...
Stewart Hosie | 474 c279WH (Link to this contribution) I am sure that, for the sake of completeness, the hon. Lady will want to advise the House that in th...
Anne Begg | 474 c281WH (Link to this contribution) I was just about to finish, but I will take the intervention.
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 474 c281WH (Link to this contribution) As the hon. Lady speaks about engaging with others, I am sure that she will welcome the fact that la...
Pete Wishart | 474 c274WH (Link to this contribution) I should like to make some progress if that is all right. I have a lot to get through. I shall give ...
Pete Wishart | 474 c274WH (Link to this contribution) Absolutely. I have tried to be as consensual as possible. All of us in the Chamber are agreed that t...
Russell Brown | 474 c275WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is mistaken on the issue of terrorism. The point that was made at the time was th...
Willie Rennie | 474 c275WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman spoke about parties' support for different positions, but he has not referred to ...
Pete Wishart | 474 c275WH (Link to this contribution) I remember the SNP taking seats from the Liberals in practically every part of Scotland—[Interruptio...
Jim Devine | 474 c275WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman said that increasing the powers of the Scottish Parliament is a priority. Never i...
Pete Wishart | 474 c275WH (Link to this contribution) It is the hon. Gentleman's No. 1 priority. Labour have set up a commission to look at what powers sh...
Pete Wishart | 474 c274WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady says, ““Hear hear!””, but had the phrase been used by the metropolitan press, it would...
Jim Hood | 474 c272WH (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman just answer the question? Is it true that the SNP did a deal with the Govern...
Pete Wishart | 474 c272WH (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman is going to say that he is totally behind the commission and that he supports ...
Jim Hood | 474 c272WH (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Pete Wishart | 474 c272WH (Link to this contribution) I shall leave the hon. Gentleman to conduct his one-man crusade to resurrect the Scottish Grand Comm...
Jim Hood | 474 c272WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman will take it under false pretences, then. I welcome the national conversation, bu...
Speaker | 474 c271WH (Link to this contribution) Order. Can we have a slightly more disciplined debate and less barracking?
Pete Wishart | 474 c271-2WH (Link to this contribution) I know that the hon. Gentleman cannot wait for his opportunity to have his say in the national conve...
Willie Rennie | 474 c271WH (Link to this contribution) I note that the hon. Gentleman is not outlining exactly when the SNP will take the national conversa...
Pete Wishart | 474 c271WH (Link to this contribution) The motion in the Scottish Parliament deals with increased fiscal powers, but it does not deal with ...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 474 c274WH (Link to this contribution) Is it not a sign of the times? We want all powers transferred from Westminster to Holyrood, and Labo...
Pete Wishart | 474 c273-4WH (Link to this contribution) As always, my hon. Friend makes a very powerful point and I can see blank faces on the Labour Benche...
Stewart Hosie | 474 c273WH (Link to this contribution) Before my hon. Friend moves on—[Hon. Members: ““No!””] How many interventions from Labour Members ha...
Pete Wishart | 474 c273WH (Link to this contribution) I do not wish to take another intervention. I want to make some progress if that is all right with t...
Pete Wishart | 474 c273WH (Link to this contribution) I was waiting for the first point about taking powers back. There is support for independence in the...
Adam Ingram | 474 c272-3WH (Link to this contribution) I want to support the commission that is under way—for one good reason. It allows us to review the w...
Pete Wishart | 474 c272WH (Link to this contribution) That is one of the most ridiculous interventions that I have heard so far, but I am sure that we sha...
Sandra Osborne | 474 c272WH (Link to this contribution) I enthusiastically support the commission because it will develop the Scottish Parliament in a very ...
Pete Wishart | 474 c272WH (Link to this contribution) If the SNP did any such deal with the Government I certainly never heard of it. If the hon. Gentlema...
Alistair Carmichael | 474 c271WH (Link to this contribution) That commission process has been endorsed by the Scottish Parliament. When will the Scottish Parliam...
Pete Wishart | 474 c270WH (Link to this contribution) It took all of two minutes, so I am grateful for that intervention. Yes, of course it should be a on...
Rosemary McKenna | 474 c270WH (Link to this contribution) Did not Sir Tom Hunter say that the referendum should consist of only one question—yes or no to Scot...
Pete Wishart | 474 c270WH (Link to this contribution) I welcome you to the Chair, Mrs. Dean. I am sure that you have heard that these excursions into Scot...
Pete Wishart | 474 c271WH (Link to this contribution) A conversation occurs when people talk about things, and they may even happen to agree. The most not...
David Hamilton | 474 c271WH (Link to this contribution) I hope that the hon. Gentleman does not think that I am part of his national conversation. The first...
Pete Wishart | 474 c270-1WH (Link to this contribution) The national conversation will go to the Scottish Parliament. Already we have had many significant a...
Alistair Carmichael | 474 c270WH (Link to this contribution) At what stage may we expect the SNP to take its national conversation to the Scottish Parliament?
Alan Reid | 474 c290WH (Link to this contribution) Yes, but this is the last intervention that I will accept.
Jim Hood | 474 c290WH (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Ben Wallace | 474 c291-2WH (Link to this contribution) I welcome you to the Chair, Mrs. Dean, and I congratulate the hon. Member for Perth and North Perths...
Alan Reid | 474 c290-1WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman shows that he obviously does not believe in democracy. However, I must press on. ...
Ben Wallace | 474 c292WH (Link to this contribution) I am a Scot and a Unionist, and I will do anything that helps Scotland to become more prosperous and...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 474 c292WH (Link to this contribution) We have failed to elicit a reasonable or understandable response from the Labour party on whether it...
Alan Reid | 474 c290WH (Link to this contribution) If it had not been for the Liberal Democrats insisting on proportional representation, the result of...
Jim Hood | 474 c290WH (Link to this contribution) Is the hon. Gentleman going to tell the House that, if it was not for his policy, we would not have ...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 474 c292WH (Link to this contribution) It does not matter where someone is from: if they are registered in a Scottish constituency, they ca...
Ben Wallace | 474 c292WH (Link to this contribution) Is the hon. Gentleman going to answer that? I shall give way if he answers the question.
David Cairns | 474 c293-4WH (Link to this contribution) I trust that you have enjoyed the debate, Mrs. Dean. The nation that gave the world the enlightenmen...
Ben Wallace | 474 c292-3WH (Link to this contribution) There we are; there is the answer. The hundreds of thousands of Scots who live in England because th...
Rosemary McKenna | 474 c292WH (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the SNP consistently tries to pick fights with Westminster, and t...
Ben Wallace | 474 c292WH (Link to this contribution) I agree. The tragedy is that it is a two-part strategy. The first part is to upset the English and o...
Pete Wishart | 474 c295WH (Link to this contribution) For clarification, who was the Minister referring to when he came up with the phrase ““the McChatter...
Tom Clarke | 474 c294WH (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend the Minister is making an excellent speech. I served on the Cabinet sub-committee tha...
David Cairns | 474 c294-5WH (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend is a great champion of the rights of disabled people and children, and he makes...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 474 c294WH (Link to this contribution) The Minister just spoke about cowardice. I am sure that he will not display the cowardice that was d...
David Cairns | 474 c294WH (Link to this contribution) In the three years that I have been a Minister, I have delivered more powers for the Scottish Parlia...
David Cairns | 474 c295WH (Link to this contribution) I will give way to the hon. Gentleman. I hope that he makes a better fist of it than his colleague d...
David Cairns | 474 c294WH (Link to this contribution) I will give way to the hon. Gentleman only once because I have only nine minutes. I suggest that he ...
David Cairns | 474 c295-6WH (Link to this contribution) So we are to have a yes-or-no referendum. That is interesting back-tracking, as my hon. Friend the M...
David Cairns | 474 c296WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman says, ““Ah””. He has just woken up to that fact.
David Cairns | 474 c296WH (Link to this contribution) No, the hon. Gentleman can sit down. He made a hames of his one shot at intervening. He has just wok...
David Cairns | 474 c295WH (Link to this contribution) Actually, I had in mind the people who write opinion columns in the Sunday Herald and Scotland on Su...
Subjects
Devolution Referendums Scotland Nationalism
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