Speeches by Norman.

“I thank the Leader of the House for the business. I know the whole House will join me in thinking of the victims of the earthquakes in Venezuela, of which we have just had news, and of course the victims of the train crash in Bedford and the victims of what now have been deemed aggravated terrorism-related attacks in E…”

“This is ground-based drones operating inside the kill zone and pulling soldiers out.”

“So a rebuttable expectation that goes into a debate between the two, and they say, “Well, over the next two or three months, we think we should have 10 days”, or whatever it might be?”

“Yes, but by the same token, demand for back-bench time will be bigger earlier on for the same reason.”

“Orysia, pick up on that if you would like, but I would also like to talk about resilience and social lessons from Ukraine.”

“That is extremely helpful; thank you all very much.”

“Your manufacturing economy in particular, is what I think you’re saying?”

“What you are saying is very interesting. If you have 35 days and the Session is two years, you are at 17.5 days per year, not 27, which is a material difference. Will you both reflect a little on how the prorating might work? Should there be 20 or 25 days a year, or should it be run so that there is a certain number of…”

“Do you think that we need to fundamentally rethink the assumptions behind the strategic defence review or is it—and the defence investment plan, if it ever rolls up—an adaptable framework that would allow us to implement these changes?”

“Kristen, you are a professor of war. Have you thought about these issues in relation to the UK? How are we adapting? Are we going fast enough? What should we be doing more?”

“By creating kill zones and creating areas—”

“Thank you very much indeed to all of you. Of course, the war in Ukraine has always been at some level the war for Europe. That is becoming particularly obvious as you get longer-range missiles and as the norms of war change in relation to the use of those missiles and drones. Can we talk a little bit about how you thin…”

“Okay, but if that is true, what you are really talking about goes much wider than just military strategy or the DIP. It goes to the whole question of what the British industrial economy should be doing to support a next-generation potential warfighting capability. If we can’t industrialise and it is all going to be abo…”

“May I welcome my guests to the Gallery? Part of our job at business questions is to act as a place of record, and this has been a grim week and a week of mourning for us all. First, we mourn for Henry Nowak. The whole House will know the terrible circumstances of his murder and will feel the deepest respect for the dig…”

“Will the Leader of the House give us the forthcoming business?”

“I thank the Leader of the House very much for that business update and for the news of the debate on Wednesday. That will be an opportunity for Back-Bench Members to put matters on the record—but for scrutiny of the Government, actually, by far the best way is through the questions that will follow the next statement, …”

“It is famously true that our present Prime Minister gets 100 times more animated and passionate about the performance of his football club every weekend than he does about trivial details of social, economic or foreign policy, and still more so when it comes to defeating the enemy from Manchester. So one would have to …”

“Will the Leader of the House give us the forthcoming business?”

“Mr Wilson, in view of what the Minister has just said about the generosity of the scheme and the availability of it now, compared with some of the alternatives, could you comment on the number you have given, which is that the remaining 17,000 applications will be processed by spring of next year? At the moment, how ma…”

“Sixteen thousand?”