Tag Archives: philip hammond

The Independent View: MoD suppresses Lib Dem review and spending information on Trident ahead of Parliamentary decision

By Kate Hudson | Published 8th December 2011 - 9:28 am

Liberal Democrats can be rightly proud of their record on challenging like-for-like Trident replacement and keeping Britain’s nuclear weapons near the top of the political agenda – certainly during the last general election campaign. But now it looks as though their coalition partners are moving to stifle the gains they have made. Not only has the Defence Secretary announced the suppression of the Lib Dem-led Trident Alternatives Review. He is also making a mockery of the delayed Trident replacement decision – scheduled for 2016 – by committing to spend £6 billion before that decision date. This is hardly fair play …

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Posted in The Independent View | Also tagged , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Opinion: Hammond is misguided if he wants to raise the speed limit

By Jonathan Featonby | Published 1st October 2011 - 12:58 pm

So it seems that the media have cottoned on to the fact that the Government is considering increasing the motorway speed limit to 80mph, up from the current 70mph.

If they had been paying attention, they would have realised that this isn’t exactly breaking news. Back in June this year, Mike Penning, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, said that the Department for Transport were looking at the impacts of increasing the speed limit. In response to an Oral Question from Stephen Mosley, he said that:

“The existing limit has been in place since the ’60s. We will weigh

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , | 44 Comments

Nick Clegg’s speech on the economy – text in full

By Nick Clegg MP | Published 14th September 2011 - 1:23 pm

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Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg delivered a speech on the economy at the LSE this morning. Here’s the full text:

Good morning. Today I’m going to talk about the economy. I’m certainly in the right place. For more than a century LSE scholars have been at the forefront of every major economic debate asking – and answering – the most pressing questions of the day.

Today, the big question facing governments is this: Given the unprecedented pressures in the global economy, what can we do to restore stability and encourage growth?

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Posted in Speeches | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Opinion: What future for Bombardier?

By Andrew Cook | Published 8th June 2010 - 12:10 pm

We’ve begun to see how the cutbacks in the Transport Department’s budget are going to affect Britain’s railways. There were always going to be some projects that would need to be delayed, but we should be careful that Transport Secretary Philip Hammond doesn’t just look at the impact on his own budget but also the impact on the industry and communities that build and maintain Britain’s railway network. He should also look forward beyond the end of this Parliament.

At the moment, after years of cuts and rationalisation by the previous Conservative and Labour regimes, Britain is now down to one …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 4 Comments

All aboard the new quango train, Conservative Party style

By Mark Pack | Published 6th January 2010 - 3:20 pm

Toot toot! Hold tight! Another one coming on board the quango express.

It’s another new quango promised by the Conservatives with, as the Telegraph has reported,

Nick Herbert, shadow minister for farming and environment, promising a farmers’ conference that a future Conservative government will implement the Competition Commission’s recommendation to create an ombudsman to rule on disputes between supermarkets and their suppliers. That is one more quango to add to the already long list: perhaps they should call it Offtrolley.

Ah, you say. But that’s an ok quango. Surely there’s room for a bit of flexibility?

Only problem is, it’s an awful lot …

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Posted in Opposition watch | Also tagged , | 2 Comments

Philip Hammond and the ‘Bonfire of the Quangos’

By Stephen Tall | Published 7th July 2009 - 1:00 pm

The Tories’ shadow chief secretary to the treasury Philip Hammond has been talent-spotted in the recent past both by ConservativeHome.com and by PoliticalBetting.com’s Mike Smithson.

So I rather suspect he will try and forget as quickly as possible his disastrous performance on BBC2′s The Daily Politics yesterday, when he was quizzed by Andrew Neil on his party’s plans to light a ‘Bonfire of the Quangos’. The four-minute interview begins about two minutes into the clip and you can watch it by CLICKING HERE. (I’d advise switching off promptly at the 6:30 mins mark if you want to …

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 6 Comments