Speeches by Maynard.

“I am not necessarily looking for the specifics but the generality. Has a big fine been handed out? Has it changed behaviour? Otherwise, if I was a Chinese exporter I would be thinking, “Hey, let’s just carry on”.”

“The electricity generator levy is a windfall tax on UK electricity generation from nuclear, renewable and biomass sources, and it raised £0.7 billion in the last financial year. The EGL is a revenue-based tax that currently applies at a rate of 45% on exceptional generation receipts above a benchmark price of £77.94 pe…”

“I want to continue to explore this. The primary authority may work well in some cases but the idea that Amazon is interfacing with Hertfordshire county council as the primary authority fits badly. I am curious as to what models other countries use, because I suspect they do not use a county to face up against one of th…”

“When you look around the world and ask who is effectively enforcing these marketplaces and holding them to account for the products they sell, is there a country that is doing a better job than the others? Is there a country that has a good system that they actually enforce? The underlying vibe here is that the Governm…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Hobhouse. I thank the hon. Member for Meriden and Solihull East (Saqib Bhatti) for securing this important debate and I thank all my colleagues who gave such excellent speeches, which set out not only how much they love their pubs, but the struggles that they face. Th…”

“Well, there you are. It is a wonderful pub, and we need to keep it open. This is all doubly tough for rural pubs. City pubs have a much larger catchment of potential customers who are within walking distance and not car-dependent, which matters with drink driving. Rural pubs are likely to rely on oil, liquefied petrole…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for that point. Business rates feel so unjust—so arbitrary and out of control, and appeals are virtually impossible. We all beg the Minister to put doing something about that at the top of his list, because they are so grossly unfair and really rip the heart out of running a business. We need to …”

“As my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (James MacCleary) points out from a sedentary position, I am not suggesting that we rejoin the European Union. Employer national insurance contributions are the single biggest nightmare. It is a tax before getting out of bed, before generating any revenue and before making any pro…”

“Absolutely. I will finish by saying that we need to look in the round at the massive cost pressures and changing consumer habits, from lower footfall to falling discretionary spending power, which combine to put pressure on pubs. A one-off package of business rates support is one thing, but we need to get back into the…”

“I am going to be a bit contrary and negative maybe. Both panels have been very positive about a lot and there is obviously a huge amount to be happy about. But we have China and the US going faster and further than the UK is. We have large multinationals often going farther and faster than smaller companies. Now there …”

“It is clear that the creditors’ consortium has material influence over Thames Water, as it is funding the company and bilaterally negotiating with the Government. Material influence means that the consortium meets the defined criteria of being an ultimate controller. Will the Secretary of State finally acknowledge that…”

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“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. The Liberal Democrats have said clearly that we think it is both wrong and unfair that the Government have implemented a stealth tax grab that will hit some of the lowest-paid and most vulnerable the hardest, by maintaining a freeze on income tax thresholds that h…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Barker. I thank the hon. Member for Colne Valley (Paul Davies) for speaking on behalf of the petitioners, and I thank the petitioners, who are in the Public Gallery today, for all the work they have done. A particular shout out goes to Sarah—I am thinking of Jess. The…”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“On the fully accountable lead, there are two positions: one has £5,000 in funding and one is 0.1 of a full-time employee. Will the Minister commit to one person who is fully funded and fully accountable, please?”

“Running with the US, you mentioned software and hardware between next year and 2029 or 2030. Do you think that is the right way to be going? By virtue of the US doing that, does that solve everybody else’s problem, because the US is such a big market and the Chinese will have to adapt their export products to serve the…”

“Beyond that? We can always talk about China too.”

“Professor Carr, which country is most on this track of figuring out what a framework is and what path there is to resolving some of these things? It requires willpower, and it is obviously expensive. Leaving aside whether you have the willpower or not, there is also brainpower, in terms of what we would need to do if w…”

“I draw Members’ attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests and the company I founded in ’96, BDA Partners. It took me to China, where I met Charles back in Beijing in 2012 and 2014.”