Scotland Bill

God bless the man: I have an excuse to speak for another six minutes. First, all the evidence tha...

My Lords, it is a very real pleasure for me to follow the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth of Drumlean. H...

My Lords, having had the privilege of serving on a board with the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, for s...

My Lords, it has been a pleasure to listen to this debate and to the excellence and importance of...

My Lords, I broadly welcome the arrival of the Scotland Bill in this House. Although I have many ...

My Lords, to speak for the first time in your Lordships’ House is a great honour and very humblin...

My Lords, it is a very great pleasure to congratulate my noble friend Lady McIntosh of Pickering....

Does my noble friend really mean that he would like to see the Bill pass out of this Parliament, ...

My noble friend misunderstands the purpose of what I was saying. It would of course be 100% bette...

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, who is very often a travelling companion on ...

My Lords, it is now 44 years since I made my first humble speeches in your Lordships’ House and I...

My Lords, I can save some time by saying right away that I cannot explain the second no-detriment...

My Lords, I rise with some trepidation to raise the subject of speeches and time guidelines, whic...

The noble Viscount was good enough to tell me that he was about to make that announcement and tha...

My Lords, I begin by congratulating both maiden speakers on their excellent contributions. In ano...

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Earl, Lord Dundee. Before he became an earl, he wa...

My Lords, for the past 18 years, we have seen significant measures of constitutional change enact...

I am fascinated by what the noble Lord is saying, but the problem is that the Smith agreement was...

I agree with the noble and learned Lord. It puts us in a very difficult situation because there i...

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Norton, and to agree with him that we h...

My Lords, I was privileged to be part of Lord Elwyn-Jones’s Front-Bench team in 1978 when this Ho...

My Lords, I feel very humbled to take part in this great debate, not least after our two maiden s...

My Lords, I welcome in particular three speeches: first are the two maiden speeches this afternoo...

Does the noble Lord think it is conceivable that it might have dawned on the SNP that in moving f...

If the noble Lord waits until the end of my speech he will find that on this, as on so many other...

My Lords, I welcome the arrival of the Bill in this House. I also welcome the arrival of my neigh...

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Sanderson of Bowden, not only due to hi...

My Lords, I join others in welcoming the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pickering, and the nobl...

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the interesting speech of the noble Lord, Lord Turnbull. It ...

It was another George, my noble friend Lord Robertson, who used that particular phrase. I am sure...

I think I will have to take that as being as near to an apology as I will get from the noble Lord...

I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Foulkes for recanting, as he should on a number of issues. ...

I am very happy to reflect on it, but I make the point that had we not had devolution, I doubt wh...

My Lords, this has been a very good debate. Although there were parts of the last speech that I d...

I understand what the noble Lord is saying about delivering the Bill but if, when he sees the fis...

I very much take the view that, if that were the case, it would fracture the delicate political c...

My Lords, I add, if I may, to the many congratulations to the noble Lord, Lord Campbell of Pitten...

I confess that I am neither an advocate nor even a solicitor, which probably excuses my inability...

One of the problems one faces as an advocate is being tempted to follow what is put before one by...

Might the noble and learned Lord turn his attention to telling us what the Opposition’s position ...

The answer that I have just foreshadowed is the question of trust. We are prepared to trust Her M...

I do not know whether that is a yes or a no.

One sometimes finds that there are questions that do not have a yes or no answer. The question of...

Oh no!

I suspect people are demanding even more but perhaps I might briefly rush through a few points. T...

No!

Much obliged. The question of the use of devolved powers vexed a number of noble Lords—quite sens...

My Lords, this has been a lively debate, to say the least. It has been a good, informed and produ...

Before the Minister leaves this subject, let us get to the heart of the matter. The thread that h...

The noble Lord anticipated what I was going to talk about. He is always very prescient about thes...

I am very grateful to the Minister for picking up the question of when we will see the fiscal fra...

To answer the noble and learned Lord’s last point, we absolutely need the Act by the time the Sco...

Forgive me but, as I mentioned in my speech, my noble friend answered a Written Question in July ...

On my noble friend’s first point, it has been evident from the debate today that the framework is...

I would be grateful for further clarification from the Minister because he said, I think, in the ...

That all depends on what is agreed in the fiscal framework. For example, if you look at the last ...

I wonder if the Minister could answer the question I asked right at the start. I have waited pati...

I am afraid that I am going to give to the noble Lord the same response that I gave earlier. We a...

Could the Minister answer the question that I put to the noble Lord, Lord Smith? John Swinney sig...

I thought that the noble Lord, Lord Smith, answered that question very well. He put it in the con...

Without in any way wishing to hold up the Bill, is it not possible to increase the work rate of t...

I assure the noble Lord that these are ministerial meetings of the Joint Exchequer Committee. In ...

I know that the hour is late and do not want to prolong the debate, but could the Minister addres...

The Deputy First Minister has made it clear that, for the Scottish Parliament to give its legisla...

Could the Minister explain to me—perhaps I am being a bit thick—whether he thinks that the Scotti...

As has been clear from everything I have been saying, we want to get a fiscal framework agreed so...

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords for their contributions to this debate. In particular, there ha...