Speeches by Bryant.

“That is an extremely well-made point, and I would add to it something I said when I appeared before the Select Committee—from whom I suppose we might hear in a moment—which is that I am very keen on having a mixed economy in the British film industry. Sometimes we will be making films for other markets; sometimes we wi…”

“I could have predicted half the hon. Gentleman’s question, because I knew Paddington would get in there. On a serious note, I am meeting industry representatives tomorrow afternoon, and I look forward to understanding their precise concerns, in addition to the obvious concerns that we all share. I want to caution sligh…”

“I know Hackney very well; as my hon. Friend knows, I used to be a councillor there. It is not just London that is a phenomenal place to make a movie, but the whole United Kingdom. We have some of the best scenery and some of the best buildings. It is not only Bath, which gets used endlessly in lots of films—when I was …”

“First, may I, on a co-operative note, say that one reason we have a very strong film and high-end television sector in the UK is the joint policy, adopted across several years by both Conservative and Labour Administrations, to ensure we have very competitive tax credits. I pay tribute to the work done by the previous …”

“As the House will be aware, President Trump announced on Sunday that he had authorised the Department of Commerce to initiate tariffs on all movies produced in foreign lands. He has made other comments since. This is a very fluid situation and we will continue to take a calm and steady approach. I spent most of Monday …”

“No, I am not sacking them. You cannot call for civil servants to be sacked from the Chair, Madam Deputy Speaker, otherwise people will call for you to be sacked. As the Jamaican reggae artists Tenor Saw and Bob Marley have lyricised, “Life is one big road with lots of signs”. This debate has shone a light on not just n…”

“I am sure that you look forward to every response from a Government Minister, Madam Deputy Speaker. I note that my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton South and Walkden (Yasmin Qureshi) ended her speech by saying, “Let us light the way for the future of British neon”. I am grateful to her for securing this important deba…”

“Kalimera, Mr Vickers. It is very good to have this debate and I commend the hon. Member for South Leicestershire (Alberto Costa) for bringing it to the House. Interestingly, it is the first one on this issue in this Parliament, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to speak about it. The hon. Gentleman is absolutel…”

“I will, but it will limit the amount of time I have to respond to the questions.”

“If the hon. Gentleman had let me get on to that subject, we would have got there earlier, but he got to make his point—I think he divided the speech he would otherwise have made into two interventions. That is not something that I ever did when I was—”

“That is the use of irony, which is also, of course, another fundamentally Greek concept. I want to say at the outset that the marbles are an extraordinarily significant and important part of Greek and—I would argue—western artistic and architectural understanding. Nobody should ever diminish their importance. Indeed, i…”

“Sorry to interrupt, but it speaks to our two key themes of national security and economic growth. For economic growth it is an area where we have a degree of expertise and commitment that others do not necessarily have, and we want to exploit that. Secondly, it is a key aspect of future security, because if you have th…”

“It is going to have to be a mixed economy, so it is not a wholesale switch from one to the other.”

“Sorry, I do not quite understand the thrust of that.”

“I have one tiny point. We need to do more co-ordination with the devolved Administrations in looking at that.”

“Just before Matthew comes in, the one other thing I would say, just in terms of economic growth, is that we know it is projected that satellite demand by 2035 will add up to something like $50 billion. If we only had 2% of that, that is $1 billion coming into the UK economy. Of course, this is an area where we want to …”

“It is great to be here. I am a Macleod as well really. My grandmother was a Macleod by birth, and her father was the minister in Avoch. In fact, my grandfather played for Glasgow Rangers. That has probably put off half the Committee, if not all of the Committee—I did not do that research beforehand. I might just set th…”

“Yes, very much so, but I would put it slightly differently. The two key aims are national security and economic growth. This is a very significant part of where Scotland can play a vital role in the wider space sector across the whole of the United Kingdom. We talk about launch, and you think, “Is that just about a roc…”

“It is not a telecoms question then.”

“I am not going to take it personally that everybody keeps on saying we need a better Minister for space or whatever. In fact, there are people also clamouring for a Minister for tourism who should be in the Cabinet. Over the years, I have heard these suggestions. Everybody always wants a Minister for this, that and the…”