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Orders of the Day — Scottish Business (11 Jul 1994)
Mr Raymond Robertson: No, I cannot give way at this point. It would be unfair to the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Wallace) and to others if I were to accept this as a dialogue between Members rather than a brief speech. Labour, and I personally, have consistently argued for the early implementation of these changes to the Standing Orders. Agreement was reached between the parties in the House at the...
Mr Raymond Robertson: Given the strict time limit on the debate, I shall be brief. I know that you, Madam Deputy Speaker, will keep me to the point. I welcome the debate and the terms of the motion moved by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State. It is worth recalling briefly, as the hon. Member for Hamilton (Mr. Robertson) did, the background to the debate on our standing orders. In the days immediately...
Mr Raymond Robertson: I shall stick to the issue in question. The hon. Gentleman may be able to fit that matter into his own speech. By its very nature, the status quo must change. The Union that we have today is not that of 1707. How could it possibly be? It has constantly adapted to changing circumstances, moved with the times and been flexible. The partnership between Scotland and England is not stagnant but...
Mr Raymond Robertson: My hon. Friend raises a valid point. As he said earlier, the last time the Grand Committee met in Edinburgh only half the Scottish parliamentary Labour party bothered to turn up. Do the Opposition parties oppose what we are doing tonight because they fear change themselves? Do they believe that we are about to deny them our greatest weapon?
Mr Raymond Robertson: The hon. Gentleman may support what we are doing tonight, but has he heard his colleagues jeering in the background? Has he seen them shaking their heads at what he said or what my right hon. Friend said? If they are supportive, why is there only a one-line whip? Why are they not whipped in the House to vote for the measures? Is it simply that Opposition Members know that we are right and...
Mr Raymond Robertson: The hon. Gentleman is good at citing figures and quoting newspaper articles, but what does he have to say about his party's old slogan "Scotland Free in '93"?
Mr Raymond Robertson: Like the speech of the hon. Member for East Lothian (Mr. Home Robertson).
Mr Raymond Robertson: A majority reduced to 1,600.
Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland: Scottish Enterprise (26 Oct 1994)
Mr Raymond Robertson: Can my right hon. Friend confirm that over the summer months there was a series of historic and massive boosts to the Scottish economy from massive inward investment in the central belt and new oilfields off the west coast of Shetland? Does he agree that under a tax-raising Scottish Assembly, all of that would be put in jeopardy and at risk? A tax-raising Scottish Assembly would drive out...
Debate on the Address (16 Nov 1994)
Mr Raymond Robertson: It is a tremendous honour for me to second the motion. [Interruption.]
Mr Raymond Robertson: It is an honour for me to second the motion moved so wittily and eloquently by my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Mr. Dunn). However, the honour belongs not to me but to my constituents in Aberdeen, South. My constituency is a diverse one, of many contrasts. It has captured the old, and blended it uniquely with the new. It can boast of a magnificent past and look forward with real...
Mr Raymond Robertson: That is all very well, but how does the hon. Gentleman respond to the fact that Britain has one of the lowest levels of youth unemployment of all the countries in the European Union?
Mr Raymond Robertson: I apologise to the hon. Gentleman for intervening again. He is talking about police complement numbers. Why has Labour-controlled Strathclyde refused during the past 15 years to bring its police complement up to the numbers agreed by the Secretary of State?
Public Expenditure (Scotland) (6 Dec 1994)
Mr Raymond Robertson: Does my right hon. Friend agree that until the Labour party comes clean about how much it will spend, where it will find the money and what it will spend the money on, its media whingeing will continue to have more than a whiff of insincerity about it? Will my right hon. Friend confirm that, despite a very tight public expenditure round, he has been able to increase resources to help the...
Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland: Economy (7 Dec 1994)
Mr Raymond Robertson: Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is quite shameful for the hon. Member for Banff and Buchan (Mr. Salmond) to speak in the way that he does, given that the economy of Grampian—an area which we are both privileged to represent—is leading the Scottish economy, the Scottish economy is leading the United Kingdom economy and the UK economy is leading European economies? As Scots, we...
Fisheries Council (10 Jan 1995)
Mr Raymond Robertson: Will my right hon. Friend confirm that, despite speculation and scaremongering to the contrary, he has reinforced the position that Spanish fishing vessels will not be allowed into the vital fisheries of the North sea? Does he agree that that is yet another example of the fact that Scotland's interests are best served by being a full and equal partner in the United Kingdom?
Business of the House (12 Jan 1995)
Mr Raymond Robertson: Will my right hon. Friend consider holding an urgent debate on the implications for the workings of the House arising from the failure, according to the Official Report, of three Scottish Members of the shadow Cabinet—the hon. Members for Dunfermline, East (Mr. Brown), for Hamilton (Mr. Robertson) and for Glasgow, Garscadden (Mr. Dewar)—to vote for the Opposition's amendment to the...
Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland: Local Government Employees (25 Jan 1995)
Mr Raymond Robertson: Does my right hon. Friend agree that the real threat to local government services and jobs in Scotland comes not from our plans for reorganisation, but from plans for a tax-raising Scottish Assembly? If it is to have a meaningful role in the life of the nation, the Assembly will take powers from the House and plunder town halls and council chambers throughout Scotland, taking away their...
Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland: Land Register (25 Jan 1995)
Mr Raymond Robertson: Does my hon. Friend find it rather strange that the hon. Member for Moray (Mrs. Ewing) chose to raise her question, when her own party's administration in Grampian region has recently sold off large tracts of Aberdeen to an English company and is refusing to sell it to the Aberdeen tenants?
Drug Abuse (15 Feb 1995)
Mr Raymond Robertson: Does my hon. Friend find the hon. Lady's intervention rather strange, given that, as a member of the Select Committee on Scottish Affairs, which discussed drug abuse in Scotland, she voted for the Labour chairman's draft report which called for the decriminalisation of cannabis and voted against an amendment by my hon. Friend the Member for Kincardine and Deeside (Mr. Kynoch), seeking to...
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