http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/speecharchive.php Recent Speeches from Chris Huhne MP en-GB Chris Huhne MP http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/ Prater Raines Ltd http://www.praterraines.co.uk/ (c) 2010 Chris Huhne MP 2010-03-20T06:00+00:00 United Kingdom http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/speeches/000097/speech_to_spring_conference.html Conference, I have been in our party for 29 years - almost a generation - and I am just as angry at our unfair voting system today as I was when I joined. 2010-03-14T10:40+00:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/speeches/000099/crime_and_security_bill_dna_database.html I wish to speak to new clauses 5 to 7, tabled in my name and those of my colleagues. I outlined our position on the DNA database on Second Reading, and my hon. Friends the Members for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake) and for Winchester (Mr. Oaten) did so in Committee. We believe that only the DNA of people who have been convicted of a criminal offence should be on the database. There should be a primacy of the presumption of innocence over guilt. DNA should by all means be taken following an arrest but, if no subsequent conviction is achieved, the data relating to that person should be removed from the database on conclusion of the investigation or criminal proceedings. That should be a simple rule with no caveats, and no ifs or buts: a dividing line between innocence and guilt. 2010-03-08T00:00+00:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/speeches/000100/control_orders.html The Liberal party's position on control orders is well known, and it has not changed over the past year. They are a violation of fundamental rights and an expensive failure to boot. What has changed is the Government's legal problem. The control order regime has been dealt a major blow by the House of Lords judgment in the case of the Secretary of State for the Home Department v. AF, in which nine Law Lords were unanimous in their view that failure to disclose adequate details of the case against people subject to control orders breached their right to a fair trial under article 6 of the European convention on human rights. 2010-03-01T00:00+00:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/speeches/000098/bill_presented__pedicabs_bill_crime_and_security_bill.html This is an omnibus Bill. As such, it is a random cross-section of measures that have been thrown together for no greater reason than the fact that they happened to be hanging around at the bus stop at the time when the Bill was going past. There are some pleasant-looking passengers dotted around the bus, but the overall impression is, I fear, tainted by the leering ogre picking its teeth on the front seat on the top deck-namely the Government's proposals for the DNA database. Although a comb has been raked through this beast's tangle since the White Paper, the effect is scarcely pleasing. 2010-01-18T00:00+00:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/speeches/000101/crime_and_security_bill_third_reading.html This is an omnibus Bill. As such, it is a random cross-section of measures that have been thrown together for no greater reason than the fact that they happened to be hanging around at the bus stop at the time when the Bill was going past. There are some pleasant-looking passengers dotted around the bus, but the overall impression is, I fear, tainted by the leering ogre picking its teeth on the front seat on the top deck-namely the Government's proposals for the DNA database. Although a comb has been raked through this beast's tangle since the White Paper, the effect is scarcely pleasing. 2010-01-18T00:00+00:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/speeches/000085/queens_speech_debate__home_affairs.html I welcome this opportunity to discuss the proposals put forward in this year's Gracious Address. My hon. Friends have already pointed out that the Address is little more than an opportunity for electioneering, and the Government have admitted as much themselves. Much of the legislation stands little, if any, chance of making it on to the statute book, and is heading inexorably towards the wash-up and a soapy consensus. That is not necessarily a bad thing at this stage of a Parliament, but we have seen it all before, too often. 2009-11-25T17:00+00:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/speeches/000093/antisocial_behaviour_speech.html We need to deal with the problem of anti-social behaviour by using a set of agencies across the Government and locally. I recently visited the Liverpool community justice experiment and was very impressed by it. I know that there has been a similar effort in Salford, too, but it depresses me that the Ministry of Justice has decided not to roll out the scheme, because it seems that there has not been a holistic appreciation of the cost savings to other Departments. The MOJ has looked at the costs that its own budget would incur, but it has not taken into account the savings elsewhere. Our inability to join up government in a way that makes the most effective contribution is an enormous problem. 2009-11-02T14:00+00:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/speeches/000086/usuk_extradition_treaty_speech.html This is a timely and important debate. Every few months, an extradition case hits the headlines, including most recently the case of Gary McKinnon, which is still sub judice while judicial review proceeds. Before that, as the Home Secretary and my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for North-East Fife (Sir Menzies Campbell) have pointed out, there were the NatWest three. These repeated causes célèbres underline the problems with our extradition arrangements. They underline the injustice of the unequal treaty that we have signed with the United States, and they will go on and on until that treaty is amended to put American and British citizens on an equal footing. 2009-07-15T17:00+01:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/speeches/000096/28_days_precharge_detention.html We on the Liberal Democrat Benches are unhappy with the further extension of what was clearly introduced as a temporary provision. That is why we will divide the House on this issue later today. There is an old adage that there is nothing so permanent as the temporary, and there are many examples of that in our legislation, but we should not seek to extend that principle to these particular provisions. 2009-07-09T16:00+01:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/speeches/000094/id_cards_debate.html I have one key point to make: the ID card scheme is not just about the cards, but about the national identity register. That is why we tabled an amendment, which is on the Order Paper but was not, unfortunately, selected, calling explicitly for the abandonment not just of ID cards but of the centralised biometric register. 2009-07-06T17:00+01:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/speeches/000091/strategic_development_area_eastleigh.html Chris Huhne: It is a pleasure to speak under your chairmanship, Mr. Jones. I am grateful to Mr. Speaker for selecting this matter for debate. It is of intense importance to my constituents in Boorley Green and Botley, whose homes will be blighted if their pleasant rural setting is developed as a new town. The planning process has let them down badly. 2009-06-30T12:30+01:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/speeches/000087/knife_crime_speech.html Knife crime is one of the most serious problems facing Britain today. The number of children admitted to hospital having been assaulted with knives has gone up by 83 per cent. in five years. That is frankly shocking, but sadly there are no simple solutions, as we have heard; there is, perhaps, consensus across the House on that. We need a response from the education and health services, the police and the criminal justice system, so I was heartened to see the emphasis on cross-community co-operation to address the root causes of knife crime in the motion, and to hear it in the speech of the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling). That appears to us to be a new emphasis, which we welcome. 2009-06-09T17:00+01:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/speeches/000084/lessons_from_the_policing_of_protest.html Thank you for inviting me to speak today. I am very happy to be able to add my contribution particularly on the good liberal subject of protests. 2009-06-08T13:00+01:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/speeches/000092/whitsun_adjournment_debate.html I apologise to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and other hon. Members, particularly those on the Government Benches, because I know that the Deputy Leader of the House is near boiling point in his exasperation at wanting to get away for the Whitsun recess. I can sympathise with that, because we had an important statement today on the Gurkhas and I had to rush out to celebrate with the Gurkhas who are outside. I am delighted that my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester (Bob Russell), along with myself and a number of others, was given one of these rather marvellous scarves as a token of the appreciation that the Gurkhas feel for the vote that the House took and which the Government have now respected. 2009-05-21T14:50+01:00 http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/speeches/000088/policing_and_crime_bill_speech.html On the government's proposals: 2009-05-19T17:00+01:00