Tag Archives: philip hammond

Mark Valladares

20-21 July 2019 – the weekend’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Mon 22nd July 2019 - 7:15 am

Conservative Party reminded of Brexit realities

Commenting on Simon Coveney’s interview on the Andrew Marr Show, Liberal Democrat Brexit Spokesperson Tom Brake said:

The Irish Deputy Prime Minister has reminded the Conservative party of the realities of Brexit today.

There will be no changes to the backstop and the fantasy of GATT 24 has been expunged once again.

The Conservatives must not be allowed to waste any more time to push the country ever closer to No Deal Brexit. Parliament must show that the only real way forward is a People’s Vote with an option to remain in the EU.

Hammond must join fight …

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Mark Valladares

21 May 2019 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 21st May 2019 - 11:50 pm
  • Moran: Let’s hope more Universities follow Oxford’s diversity drive
  • Hobhouse: End short prison sentences to cut crime
  • Cable: Stop Brexit altogether to end turmoil for British business
  • Chancellor’s warning must trigger No Deal U-turn
  • Cable: Lib Dems “now indisputably the strongest remain party”
  • Lamb: Govt must end abuse of our most vulnerable
  • With no guarantee of a People’s Vote the PM will get no support from the Lib Dems
  • Jenny Randerson: Brexit endangers devolution settlement

Moran: Let’s hope more Universities follow Oxford’s diversity drive

Responding to the news that Oxford University is set to overhaul its recruitment processes, and will commit that at least 25% of students will be …

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Caron Lindsay

Philip Hammond talks about second referendum while Corbyn approves “unholy alliance” to deliver Brexit

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 3rd February 2019 - 3:35 pm

There’s some interesting nuggets in the Sunday Times reports on the Brexit chaos and ongoing shenanigans. It’s not the headlines, which are about the Royal Family being moved out of London if there are no deal riots, or the supposed new party to be formed on Valentine’s Day as Labour MPs resign the whip. It’s what else is in the article.

Earlier this week, Christine Jardine talked about the Labour Party became the “handmaids of Brexit” after their votes blocked Yvette Cooper’s amendment and helped pass Graham Brady’s time-wasting one calling for unicorns on the Irish border. Well maybe unicorns weren’t explicitly mentioned, but it all amounts to the same thing.

Labour’s role in facilitating Brexit was highlighted in an article in the Sunday Times today. Tim Shipman and Caroline Wheeler wrote(£) about how

An “unholy alliance” has formed to force through a deal consisting of May’s allies, a member of the shadow cabinet, the trade unions and Labour MPs, with Jeremy Corbyn’s tacit approval.

A recent poll suggested that Liberal Democrat support would go way up, even overtaking Labour, if Corbyn’s party helped deliver Brexit.

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NewsHound

LibLink: Layla Moran: If Philip Hammond thinks driving a train is so easy “even a woman can do it” maybe a career change is in order

By NewsHound | Wed 19th July 2017 - 1:30 pm

In an article for the Independent at the weekend, Oxford West and Abingdon MP Layla Moran took Philip Hammond to task for his alleged remark that driving a train is so easy “even a woman can do it.”

She pointed out that they can, but how many women do this highly paid job?

The key fact from the latest Hammond row was glossed over, but it is the real scandal: that just 5.5 per cent of train drivers are women. And the average annual salary of a train driver is just shy of £50,000, way higher than most women earn a year. What, I want to know, are ministers doing to enable more women to drive trains?

Hammond, she said, had form for sexist remarks:

Earlier this year he accused Labour MP Mary Creagh of being “hysterical”. Her crime? Daring to ask the Chancellor about the effect of Brexit on British businesses with bases in Ireland.

The question was all too pertinent. I was talking to one of the country’s most eminent constitutional lawyers last week (sorry Philip, but she did happen to be female) who flagged up the issue of the Irish border as one of the very most intractable in Brexit negotiations. Her conclusion was that ministers have no solution, because there is no solution.

And, of course, he is not the only Tory known for such casual sexism:

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The Voice

Cable: Hammond’s position on public sector pay unsustainable

By The Voice | Sun 16th July 2017 - 12:15 pm

Chancellor Philip Hammond was quite happy to tell Andrew Marr that his Cabinet colleagues didn’t trust him on Brexit, but not so quick to deny that he’d said that public sector workers were overpaid. Our shadow Chancellor and almost leader Vince Cable had this to say:

I am very surprised by Philip Hammond’s reported comment the public sector workers are “overpaid”. Who exactly is he talking about? Nurses? Teachers? Police officers? Servicemen and women?

There is very clear evidence of chronic shortages and recruitment difficulty in many of our essential services. Basic economics, let alone wider ideas of fairness suggests that Hammond’s position is totally unsustainable.

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NewsHound

‘What the hell is going on?’ – Farron asks as reports say Hammond briefly given number 2 job because of a typo

By NewsHound | Sat 29th October 2016 - 1:15 pm

Commenting in response to reports that Philip Hammond was given the job of First Secretary of State because of a typo, Tim Farron said:

Alistair Carmichael has only been in his job for a single evening and already he’s seen off a Government Minister.

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Paul Walter

Philip Hammond: The Tories are the only party who can represent modern Britain …then the camera turned onto the audience

By Paul Walter | Wed 5th October 2016 - 11:10 am

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Stephen Tall

Philip Hammond on Coalition with the Lib Dems: horses for courses?

By Stephen Tall | Fri 28th June 2013 - 9:25 am

philip hammond house magazineThere’s an interesting interview with Tory defence secretary Philip Hammond in this week’s House magazine. Two snippets in particular will be of interest to Lib Dem readers.

Let’s start with the defence department and horses. In the lead-up to the spending review when tensions were spilling over between the treasury and the spending departments, Danny Alexander remarked in an interview: “Of course, in a department that has more horses than it has tanks, there are room for efficiency savings without affecting our overall military output.”

Danny’s jibe stung …

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Kate Hudson

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

By Kate Hudson | Thu 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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Jonathan Featonby

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

By Jonathan Featonby | Sat 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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Nick Clegg MP

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

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

DPM-LSE-14Sept11_8846

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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Andrew Cook

Opinion: What future for Bombardier?

By Andrew Cook | Tue 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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Mark Pack

All aboard the new quango train, Conservative Party style

By Mark Pack | Wed 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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Stephen Tall

Philip Hammond and the ‘Bonfire of the Quangos’

By Stephen Tall | Tue 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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