Statement
Ministerial statement: Enhanced Free Trade Agreement with Switzerland: Negotiation Update
“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.…”
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John Cooper
ConservativeMP for Dumfries and Galloway
What John said recently
Statement
Business Statement: Leader of the House
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Metal prices being what they are, if we were to take the amount of brassneck on show here today and melt it down, we could fund defence properly. The honourable gentleman tells us that the ship of State will sail on …”
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Statement
Ministerial statement: NATO Summit
“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.…”
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Questions
Urgent question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures will be put in place to ensure that holiday travel and business freight will not be delayed at UK ports. International rail terminals and airports as a result of the imposition of the European Entry System (EES)
“Haulage firms, agricultural firms, fisheries firms in my Dumfries and Galloway constituency are heavily reliant on Dover, and delays, particularly to seafood, are disastrous. The value of the cargo disappears practically overnight. As a mem…”
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Debate
Opposition Day: Early Release of Prisoners
“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. The Scottish Government famously takes no lessons from anyone, but perhaps in sentencing we might learn something from them because they are in the grip of soft touch justice, fever. And there is a warning o…”
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Questions
Oral questions: Business and Trade
“16. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support the creation of jobs for young people.…”
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Statement
Ministerial statement: Asylum Accommodation
“The Mercure hotel in Dumfries is home to around 100 men of uncertain origin and, thanks to the good offices of the Home Office, I have been able to visit. However, I have not been able to get any clarity on the criteria for closure and cert…”
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Urgent question
Urgent question: Prisoner Early Release
“Soft-touch fever is spreading across the land because in Scotland, the SNP Scottish Executive are about to start releasing rapists as much as 2.5 years early. Do the Ministers on the Front Bench not realise that they are so out of touch wit…”
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Questions
Oral questions: Work and Pensions
“15. What recent estimate he has made of the level of fraud and error in the social security system.…”
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Urgent question
Urgent question: Media Green Paper
“As a former journalist, I salute the Secretary of State’s ambition to leave no one behind, but as the honourable Member for Hexham (Joe Morris) pointed out, the death of terrestrial television risks leaving a lot of people in remote and rur…”
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Urgent question
Urgent question: Belfast: Violent Disorder
“In January, I wrote to the Home Secretary because a whistleblower suggested that Border Force lacked sufficient personnel to cover night sailings from Belfast and Larne to Cairnryan, the main port in my constituency of Dumfries and Galloway…”
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Questions
Oral questions: Scotland
“3. What recent discussions he has had with the First Minister of Scotland on a new referendum on Scottish independence.…”
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Urgent question
Urgent question: Processed Russian Oil Products: Sanctions
“I had constituents in the Gallery today, and they will be aghast to find out that their flight back to Scotland is potentially using Russian fuel. Surely, regardless of whether that was the case before, we need to grip that issue. We also n…”
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Questions
Oral questions: Wales
“Thank you, Mr Speaker. I do not know whether to stand at the Dispatch Box or on it. For want of a horseshoe nail, the kingdom was lost. The defence of our country today rests on modern nail-makers—the small and medium-sized enterprises supp…”
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Questions
Oral questions: Education
“12. What steps she is taking to promote apprenticeships as an alternative to university education.…”
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Statement
Ministerial statement: British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme
“The buzzword this morning is “bold”. Yet the reality is that, though this plan might be bolder than what went before, it remains with all the oomph of a 40W bulb. When electricity in Dumfries in my constituency is four times the price in Du…”
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Urgent question
Urgent question: Strategic Defence Review: Funding
“To listen to the Minister, one might think that the DIP matters very little and that we are cracking on regardless, but the truth is that the MOD has been out-manoeuvred by the Chancellor, and the DIP is pinned down by the Treasury. The DIP…”
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Debate
Defence
“It is an old quote—I am sure my honourable and gallant Friend will recognise it, given his service—that while veterans talk logistics, amateurs talk tactics. He is outlining a dire situation, because we are not gripping the logistics proble…”
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Statement
Ministerial statement: Middle East
“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker— [ Interruption. ] Excuse me; I have swallowed a fly.…”
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Debate
Lord Advocate
“I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision about the role and functions of the Lord Advocate; and for connected purposes. Chaos and decay are priced into the lives of people in Scotland as they suffer under the …”
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Statement
Ministerial statement: Social Cohesion Action Plan
“In 1979 my father took me to Newton Stewart cinema to see “Monty Python’s Life of Brian”, and I recall my father being more upset by a spoof travel documentary that preceded the main film, because there was swearing in it, than he was about…”
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Questions
Oral questions: Work and Pensions
“3. What assessment he has made of trends in the level of unemployment.…”
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Debate
Department for Business and Trade
“It is a pleasure to take part in this debate, and I congratulate the right honourable Member for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North (Liam Byrne), who chairs the Business and Trade Committee on which I serve. As Chair of such a Committ…”
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Debate
Lord Mandelson: Government Response to Humble Address Motion
“As a former journalist, I know that the fourth estate do not always get things right, but they are not in the habit of making things up. What, then, are we to make of reports from Dan Hodges in the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday that the…”
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Debate
UK-India Free Trade Agreement
“It would remiss of me not to touch on the fact that the roots of this trade deal stretch back to the previous Conservative Government, and not to mention that the then Secretary of State Alister Jack—now Lord Jack of Courance—sent an aircra…”
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Statement
Ministerial statement: Fish and Chip Sector
“It is good to see so many right honourable and honourable Members in their plaice as we skate through the choppy waters that are the fish and chip sector. The chips are down for fish suppers. While the word “iconic” is overused, surely fish…”
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Statement
Ministerial statement: China and Japan
“The SNP Scottish Government undertook a secretive trip to Beijing last year, and caught a case of renminbi fever while they were there. They are now blundering around on the world stage, desperate for Mingyang to put money into Ardersier. N…”
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Debate
Fishing Industry
“The honourable Member for St Ives (Andrew George) raised the question of the correct method of dispatch for lobster. May I counsel him against the method that I tried, which was to pop them in the freezer? By the time I opened the door, the…”
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Debate
Business of the House
“Has the fish supper had its chips? Fish and chips were so critical to morale during wartime that Churchill insisted they were never rationed, but now my constituent Romano Petrucci, the proprietor of the Central Café in my hometown of Stran…”
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Questions
Oral questions: Northern Ireland
“Does the Secretary of State not agree with expert opinion that says that while we remain signatories to the ECHR, we will not be able to protect our veterans from vexatious litigation?…”
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