Speeches by Coghlan.

“I was intrigued by your answer to Bobby Dean MP on the long-term forecast horizon, and whether it is a straight-line assumption on a forecast. As a former financial modeller, I would argue there is not necessarily anything wrong with that, if it has a good basis. Given your expertise, which I was very excited to see, i…”

“It has consistently downgraded it, because it found that 2% has not—”

“Do you think that productivity forecasts could be more robust than they are currently? I personally was quite frustrated that a lot of the OBR’s productivity forecasts seem to be based on the idea: “Well, pre-2008 it used to be 2%, therefore at some point it’s got to return.” There was not much more science behind it t…”

“Does that inform your scepticism around whether an expansionary fiscal policy would have a positive economic effect?”

“Coming back to John Grady’s questions on independence, how did you think about your role as an independent member of the MPC, and how comfortable were you with it? How did you come up with interest rate decisions independently, versus when consulting with other members of the MPC?”

“On your previous comment, Professor Haskel, could you expand a bit more on why you think the labour market has been so damaged? What are the limitations in supply?”

“What is your basis for being more doubtful, given the challenges that we are having with the labour market survey, for example?”

“There are 1.25 million NEET young people, for example. Is that something that could help supply, or is that very hard to say?”

“Given your expertise in productivity and R&D, what is your view the extent to which the UK stagnation since 2008, or even earlier, has been driven by low levels of public and private R&D investment in the UK versus other G7 economies? How significant a factor is that?”

“I have given the Government evidence that hundreds of children with special educational needs and disabilities are avoidably killing themselves because of public authority negligence and misconduct, including my constituent Jen Bridges-Chalkley. Does the Minister agree that the first step in tackling this problem is kn…”

“Governor, you sound slightly sceptical about the banks’ position on this. Of course, prior to 2008, banks were making the exact same argument—“You just need to deregulate and lower capital requirements. It’ll be fine; the economy will go gangbusters”—and in the process they blew up the global economy. To what extent do…”

“Three years ago, my 22-year-old constituent, Hannah Byrne, whose family are in the Gallery, died on the first night of her holiday in Corfu. Two British women left the scene without ever being interviewed by police. We know that the Greek authorities have submitted two requests to the Home Office for mutual legal assis…”

“I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to require persons discharging functions on behalf of certain other persons to assess the mental capacity of those persons in specified circumstances; and for connected purposes. At issue is the devastating misuse of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, which has resulted …”

“Some 80% of US and UK historical war borrowing has been repaid not through debt repayments but through economic growth. Draghi has urged the EU to borrow for defence R&D to increase economic growth and repay debt. Does the Prime Minister’s statement this morning ruling out extra borrowing for defence risk not only …”

“My constituent is here. Her ex-husband sexually assaulted her children, and attempted to murder them and her by removing the brake pads from her car, yet the court appeared to listen more to the abuser’s allegation of parental alienation syndrome, a concept discredited by the World Health Organisation, than her evidenc…”

“How carefully are the Government considering the advice of Draghi, which of course was to the EU, that you can raise economic growth for all by borrowing for defence R&D, and decrease debt, because growth increases faster than debt, in terms of thinking about the impact on the defence investment plan?”

“Of course, but there are different types of public spending. There is capital spending and current spending. Capital spending has far more economic impact—positive economic impact—than current spending. Would you agree that, in an ideal scenario, at a minimum there should be no net decrease in capital spending in Gover…”

“Chief Secretary, we have discussed many times the economic benefit of increased defence spending, if done correctly. I was very concerned to see the reports in The Sunday Times about cutting capital spending elsewhere, which I understand you cannot comment on. If the Government were to cut capital spending elsewhere, y…”

“Mr Warner, you were making me quite depressed earlier.”

“Either I spend £500 more on defence personally through my taxes, or we destroy the welfare budget. Dr Paolo Surico testified to this Committee: “Historically, for the UK and the US, more than 80% of that increased borrowing due to the defence budget has been paid back by higher economic growth, not higher taxes or high…”