UK Parliament / Open data

Energy Saving (Daylight) Bill

Proceeding contribution from John Robertson (Labour) in the House of Commons on Friday, 26 January 2007. It occurred during Debate on bills on Energy Saving (Daylight) Bill.
That is a good point. I have been looking at the times of daylight and when the cut-offs are. The hon. Member for Wealden made a good point about people from the south of England. When we look at some of the cities in the north, there is not a big difference between the north of England and even Cardiff, which is not exactly the north of England, and the borders of Scotland. The difference between Aberdeen and Newcastle is not great. Therefore, Conservative Members have not thought about their own representation within England, let alone Scotland. It would be much better if we were to look at the matter in the round as a United Kingdom Parliament. We should accept or reject the Bill today on the premise that we are voting for a Bill for the whole of the United Kingdom. I and my hon. Friend the Member for Dumfries and Galloway feel strongly about the Act of Union. I have said before in a speech that there is only one Unionist party in this Parliament and it is the Labour party, because the other parties have shown on many occasions that they disregard other parts of the United Kingdom, not just Scotland, and it has come back to haunt them. They need only look at their representation in Scotland and Wales to see how the Welsh and Scots feel about them. If they want to reverse that, it is time they started to look at themselves—as they did when I was a young boy—as the Conservative and Unionist party. It is still the only party in Scotland that ever got more than 50 per cent. of the vote in a general election. That was in the late 1950s. By the 1990s, it was gone. They have to ask themselves why. It is Bills such as this that is causing part of the problem. I will leave some time for the Minister to say a few words. I hope that he will answer all the questions and all the problems that Members have raised. However, I say to Members—do not support the Bill.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
455 c1742 
Session
2006-07
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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