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Opposition day on Wednesday, 15 July 2009, in the House of Commons, led by Nigel Waterson. The answering member was Angela Eagle.

Caring for the Elderly

Caring for the elderly. Sixteenth opposition day debate (part 2). Main question negatived on division (211 votes to 287). Amendment agreed on question.

Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
496 c365-411 
Session
2008-09
Department
Department for Work and Pensions
Department of Health
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Proceeding contributions
Speaker | 496 c380-1 (Link to this contribution) Order. Before I call the hon. Member for Leeds, North-West (Greg Mulholland), let me say that I rath...
Speaker | 496 c379 (Link to this contribution) Order. I sense that the debate is deteriorating. Far too much extra chatter is going on. Eight Back-...
Show all contributions (129)
Nigel Waterson | 496 c379 (Link to this contribution) With respect, the Minister is struggling. Let me make it clear: we have no plans to scrap those paym...
Angela Eagle | 496 c378-9 (Link to this contribution) I pay tribute to my hon. Friend's tenacity in attempting to get some sort of sense out of Opposition...
David Winnick | 496 c378 (Link to this contribution) Should not my hon. Friend congratulate the hon. and learned Member for Torridge and West Devon (Mr. ...
Geoffrey Cox | 496 c378 (Link to this contribution) I do not know whether the Minister has had a chance to read the report of the Select Committee, on w...
Speaker | 496 c381 (Link to this contribution) It was 20 minutes, if that is helpful.
Angela Eagle | 496 c379-80 (Link to this contribution) I have been generous in giving way. To get through the rest of my remarks, I will not be so generous...
Speaker | 496 c382 (Link to this contribution) Order. I think that that is a long enough intervention.
Richard Younger-Ross | 496 c382 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend accept that one reason for pensioner poverty is that pensioner inflation is far ...
Stephen Ladyman | 496 c382 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman seems to have missed the legislation that allowed the local NHS to create care tr...
Greg Mulholland | 496 c382 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend raises an important point. Indeed, the issues relevant to this debate are covered by ...
Greg Mulholland | 496 c381 (Link to this contribution) I shall endeavour not to speak for longer than that, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I think that we can all ag...
Greg Mulholland | 496 c381-2 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for that interesting figure. The reality is that the number of pensioners...
Greg Mulholland | 496 c382-3 (Link to this contribution) There are some interesting pilots taking place in parts of the country, but that simply will not dea...
Christopher Fraser | 496 c383 (Link to this contribution) I assume that during the election campaign the hon. Gentleman will be explaining in his own words ho...
Greg Mulholland | 496 c383 (Link to this contribution) I will, of course, tell the House what my party policy is—and, unlike the hon. Gentleman's party, we...
David Drew | 496 c384 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way, briefly?
Greg Mulholland | 496 c384 (Link to this contribution) I thank the right hon. Gentleman for clarifying that technicality. I was talking about the partnersh...
Stephen Dorrell | 496 c383 (Link to this contribution) I think that the hon. Gentleman may have made an inadvertent error in suggesting that the Wanless pr...
Greg Mulholland | 496 c384 (Link to this contribution) I will, although I am conscious of the need to allow others to speak.
Graham Stuart | 496 c384 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Greg Mulholland | 496 c384 (Link to this contribution) I agree entirely with the hon. Gentleman's sentiments, but I am afraid that if he spoke to all the e...
David Drew | 496 c384 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for his generosity. An argument that I have not heard advanced so far is ...
Graham Stuart | 496 c384 (Link to this contribution) I will try to be brief. The truth is that under this Labour Government, the local authority bar for...
Greg Mulholland | 496 c384-5 (Link to this contribution) Indeed. I do not think that the burden placed on local authorities is taken seriously enough in this...
Kali Mountford | 496 c385-7 (Link to this contribution) I have been a Member in this House for a little while now, and during that time I have discussed dem...
Kali Mountford | 496 c387 (Link to this contribution) I shall do my best to sit down, if the hon. Gentleman will give me a moment to do so.
Kali Mountford | 496 c387-8 (Link to this contribution) I understand exactly what the hon. Gentleman is saying, but I have read the Green Paper and I feel t...
Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown | 496 c387 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Lady for giving way. Does the situation not grow worse, and is insult not added to ...
Stephen Dorrell | 496 c388-9 (Link to this contribution) I wish to follow the hon. Member for Colne Valley (Kali Mountford) in adopting a relatively non-adve...
Speaker | 496 c388 (Link to this contribution) Order. The House has been listening to the hon. Lady with great respect, but in fairness to other ho...
Stephen Ladyman | 496 c390 (Link to this contribution) I am following the right hon. Gentleman's argument with care. He is absolutely right: that is the el...
Phil Hope | 496 c390 (Link to this contribution) I am loth to intervene, but the right hon. Gentleman seems to be arguing for option 2, which is the ...
Angela Eagle | 496 c372-3 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move an amendment, to leave out from "House" to the end of the Question and add:""welcomes ...
Malcolm Wicks | 496 c373 (Link to this contribution) On the default retirement age, does the Minister agree that, in the coming years, with longer life e...
Angela Eagle | 496 c374-5 (Link to this contribution) When Conservative Members see a woman, they often think that she is a secretary. I have to tell the ...
Baroness Browning | 496 c375 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady mentioned personalising care. A problem that has been around for a long time—and one, ...
Angela Eagle | 496 c374 (Link to this contribution) I am more than happy to agree wholeheartedly with the hon. Gentleman. I do not think that we, certai...
Jeremy Wright | 496 c374 (Link to this contribution) As part of the review, could we reflect what is one of my frustrations and, perhaps, one of the Mini...
Angela Eagle | 496 c374 (Link to this contribution) My experience of meeting older people in many areas around the country is not that they reflect the ...
Christopher Fraser | 496 c374 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Lady accept that, as I mentioned earlier, there is cynicism among elderly people on th...
Angela Eagle | 496 c375 (Link to this contribution) It is important that the approaches that are being developed now become the norm in time. We are in ...
Stephen Dorrell | 496 c375 (Link to this contribution) I would be grateful if the hon. Lady corrected the hon. Member for South Thanet (Dr. Ladyman) on the...
Angela Eagle | 496 c375 (Link to this contribution) That is why we are working with the process set out in our document "Putting people first", which is...
Stephen Ladyman | 496 c375 (Link to this contribution) I am sure that my hon. Friend has not forgotten—perhaps the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton (An...
Angela Eagle | 496 c376 (Link to this contribution) A carers strategy is being developed. It is important that we begin to move further along the road o...
Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown | 496 c376 (Link to this contribution) Can the Minister assure the House that elderly people who are making a very valued contribution to c...
Angela Eagle | 496 c376 (Link to this contribution) I think there might be some sort of approach on which we can agree in terms of philosophical change ...
Kelvin Hopkins | 496 c376 (Link to this contribution) The major factor in that was the breaking of the link with earnings made almost as soon as Mrs. That...
Angela Eagle | 496 c376 (Link to this contribution) I have given way to the hon. Gentleman, and I want to get on with my speech as this is a short debat...
Angela Eagle | 496 c376-7 (Link to this contribution) It was certainly one of the many factors. Twelve years of a Labour Government committed to helping ...
John Mason | 496 c377 (Link to this contribution) On that point, does the Minister accept that although there may have been an improvement in the numb...
Angela Eagle | 496 c377 (Link to this contribution) Of course, and we continue to try to drive up the percentage of people claiming. In the Welfare Refo...
David Drew | 496 c377 (Link to this contribution) May I commend the village agent scheme set up by the Department for Work and Pensions, which is run ...
Angela Eagle | 496 c377 (Link to this contribution) I thank my hon. Friend for his observations. When we conduct take-up campaigns, we must understand h...
Geraldine Smith | 496 c377 (Link to this contribution) I do not know about Norwich, but I was recently talking to a pensioner in Morecambe who told me that...
Speaker | 496 c378 (Link to this contribution) Order. I think I have had to say to the hon. Gentleman on more than one occasion that in his role as...
David Leslie Taylor | 496 c377-8 (Link to this contribution) I was speaking to a pensioner in Norfolk just a few days ago who knew that the take-up rate for the ...
Angela Eagle | 496 c378 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend the Member for North-West Leicestershire (David Taylor) has drawn attention to a poin...
Graham Stuart | 496 c392 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has said that pensioners are better off, but we have had 12 years of economic gro...
Stephen Ladyman | 496 c392-4 (Link to this contribution) I certainly think that we need to bring funding for the NHS and for social care together in various ...
Stephen Ladyman | 496 c394 (Link to this contribution) Very quickly, because I do not have any more injury time.
Stephen Ladyman | 496 c392 (Link to this contribution) In one moment. I was just about to be rude to the Liberal Democrats; let me do that first, and then ...
Paul Robert Holmes | 496 c392 (Link to this contribution) I was going to agree with the hon. Gentleman absolutely until he made his last point. Everything tha...
Stephen Ladyman | 496 c392 (Link to this contribution) I am not happy if one single pensioner is in poverty, but I know that, thanks to this Government, fa...
Stephen Ladyman | 496 c391 (Link to this contribution) I sometimes think that I am a little bit too naive for this job. When I saw on the Order Paper the s...
Christopher Fraser | 496 c400-1 (Link to this contribution) Like others, I pay tribute to those colleagues who have spoken in this debate, because many of us fe...
Paul Burstow | 496 c399-400 (Link to this contribution) I want to contribute briefly to the debate in two particulars. Many useful contributions have been m...
Richard Taylor | 496 c397-8 (Link to this contribution) At the beginning of the debate, I was quite depressed by the partisan nature of the contributions, s...
Graham Stuart | 496 c398 (Link to this contribution) I welcome the hon. Gentleman's desire not to be partisan in spirit. I put it to him that one reason ...
Stephen Ladyman | 496 c396-7 (Link to this contribution) If the insurance had to be paid while one was working, which seemed to be the suggestion of the righ...
Geoffrey Cox | 496 c397 (Link to this contribution) Plainly, the detail needs to be examined. I can think of solutions through the insurance system that...
Geoffrey Cox | 496 c394-6 (Link to this contribution) I shall try to confine my remarks, to make them relatively short and, in the spirit of my right hon....
Richard Younger-Ross | 496 c394 (Link to this contribution) Will the former Minister answer the question about how we deal with rural areas where people want to...
Phil Hope | 496 c405-7 (Link to this contribution) We have had a vigorous debate. Some of it has been driven by political motivations—we know where the...
Phil Hope | 496 c407 (Link to this contribution) I am not going to give way, as I only have a minute or so left. When the Tories were in power, pens...
Graham Stuart | 496 c401 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that the black hole in finances and resources is such that the honest mess...
Christopher Fraser | 496 c401-2 (Link to this contribution) I agree 100 per cent. with my hon. Friend. There is no doubt that families try. No matter what their...
Stephen O'Brien | 496 c402-5 (Link to this contribution) We have had a wide-ranging debate that has been characterised by thorough and thoughtful contributio...
John Mason | 496 c368 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman agree with me that even better than a council tax freeze would be a local in...
Nigel Waterson | 496 c368 (Link to this contribution) I do not agree with the hon. Gentleman. I would be happy to have a completely separate debate on tha...
Graham Stuart | 496 c368 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree with me that now is the perfect time for the Government to do the right th...
Nigel Waterson | 496 c368-9 (Link to this contribution) I can only agree with my hon. Friend. The blatant way in which the Government are attempting to put ...
Malcolm Wicks | 496 c369 (Link to this contribution) Given that the serious question of how we care for a growing number of frail, elderly people did not...
Nigel Waterson | 496 c370 (Link to this contribution) I was happy to give way to a distinguished former Pensions Minister. He is right about the dodging p...
Geraldine Smith | 496 c370 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman has been debating the issue, what are his party's proposals? We have not seen ...
Greg Mulholland | 496 c370 (Link to this contribution) That is an extraordinary statement. The hon. Gentleman knows full well that we had a policy on socia...
Christopher Fraser | 496 c370 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State said yesterday:""it would be wrong to force the pace of that debate."—[Offici...
Nigel Waterson | 496 c370 (Link to this contribution) I will take one more intervention, and then I will make a bit of progress.
Nigel Waterson | 496 c370 (Link to this contribution) I think that I said "the main parties". I believe that the hon. Member for Romsey (Sandra Gidley) de...
Nigel Waterson | 496 c371 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right; it is a bit of a mystery. Age Concern and Help the Aged have commented on ...
Speaker | 496 c365 (Link to this contribution) I advise the House that Mr. Speaker has selected the amendment in the name of the Prime Minister.
Nigel Waterson | 496 c365-6 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move,"That this House believes all old people should be treated with dignity and respect; r...
Lord Redwood | 496 c366 (Link to this contribution) Is my hon. Friend aware that in their latest proposals the Government talk about a £20,000 tax on pr...
Stephen Ladyman | 496 c368 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman proposes fixing council tax for two years, which will result in councils having l...
Nigel Waterson | 496 c368 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman assumes that all councils will go down the route taken by some Labour and Liberal...
David Leslie Taylor | 496 c367 (Link to this contribution) I am not sure where the hon. Gentleman was in the very early 1980s when, in one of the meanest acts ...
Nigel Waterson | 496 c367-8 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. In fairness, he assiduously attends these ...
Nigel Waterson | 496 c367 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who makes an excellent point. As someone who has also encountered o...
Nigel Waterson | 496 c367 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my right hon. Friend, who makes a powerful point. The people who should always bewa...
Christopher Fraser | 496 c367 (Link to this contribution) I am sure that my hon. Friend will appreciate that the desperate plight of the elderly is being rais...
Speaker | 496 c372 (Link to this contribution) Order. The Question is as on the Order Paper—[Interruption.] Order. Can those on both Front Benches ...
Nigel Waterson | 496 c372 (Link to this contribution) I agree. It is beneath contempt to raise fears, especially among the elderly, but that is a sign of ...
Graham Stuart | 496 c372 (Link to this contribution) I think that my hon. Friend has just exposed how this dying Government are behaving. They are using ...
Nigel Waterson | 496 c372 (Link to this contribution) Unlike the hon. Gentleman, I am talking about the here and now—the pensioners who are suffering and ...
David Winnick | 496 c372 (Link to this contribution) I was in the House when the Conservatives were in government for 18 years. Will the hon. Gentleman b...
Nigel Waterson | 496 c371 (Link to this contribution) Labour is also claiming that we would scrap free bus passes for the elderly, but we have no such pla...
Nigel Waterson | 496 c372 (Link to this contribution) We have no such plans, and it is dishonest to claim otherwise. Labour claims that we would scrap the...
Speaker | 496 c371 (Link to this contribution) Order. Comments are being made from a sedentary position. May I remind Members about the conduct of ...
Angela Eagle | 496 c373-4 (Link to this contribution) It is quite clear that the approaches to social policy that Beveridge developed, essentially, when o...
Angela Eagle | 496 c377 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend's experiences on the doorstep are similar to mine.
Nigel Waterson | 496 c370 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry to disabuse the hon. Lady, but we have to have the small formality of a general election ...
Stephen Dorrell | 496 c390-1 (Link to this contribution) The key strength of a link between partnership and insurance is that more private resources are unlo...
Angela Eagle | 496 c378 (Link to this contribution) The Government have no plans to do that, but I wonder whether the hon. and learned Gentleman's inter...
Greg Mulholland | 496 c381 (Link to this contribution) Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I have to say that I have no idea how long my colleague's speech was....
Graham Stuart | 496 c381 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is making powerful points about the position of the many pensioners who live in p...
Richard Taylor | 496 c398-9 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman. I agree that the consultation is too late and has been a long time comin...
Stephen Ladyman | 496 c394 (Link to this contribution) I am absolutely not suggesting that, but many people live in suburbs and around towns and are happy ...
Stephen Dorrell | 496 c390 (Link to this contribution) I agree with the hon. Gentleman to the extent that the funding gap has to involve more private resou...
Graham Stuart | 496 c374 (Link to this contribution) Can the Minister tell us whether the Prime Minister plans to visit Norwich, just as he did Glenrothe...
Nigel Waterson | 496 c370 (Link to this contribution) Well, 45,000 homes a year for 12 years—hon. Members can do the maths. People have had to sell their ...
Jeremy Wright | 496 c370-1 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way. Does he agree that there may well be some merit in t...
Subjects
Disability Finance Pensioners Low incomes Poverty Older people Means-tested benefits Social security benefits State retirement pensions Social services
Link
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