Speeches by Cooper.

“Adam, you were first to mention analysis paralysis, but I think you would exclude from that the Government’s ability to monitor what is going on with AI, to look at the workplace and to see the changes that are coming. I do not know whether you are familiar with the AI and future of work unit, which is tasked with this…”

“Energy is the issue that comes up time and again. We travel the country on safari, as you put it, and it comes up constantly and is a huge problem. In my constituency of Dumfries, energy costs are something like four times what they would be in Dumfries in Virginia. I know that energy costs are not directly in your whe…”

“That is domestic bills as well, is it not?”

“It was seismic in terms of vibes and feels, but it is hardly seismic in GDP terms, is it?”

“The much-vaunted EU reset has been a bit of a damp squib. Our report on it was fairly scathing, I would say. It is expected to add just 0.5% to GDP in this country over the next decade. What is your view on a new relationship with the EU? Are you pining for a return to the EU? Should you be honest with people and get u…”

“My ambition is to be a dilettante playboy, but I have absolutely no idea how I am going to get there or a timescale for it. Ambition is marvellous, but we need—”

“That is the point here. This is all great. It is jam tomorrow, but the businesses are not going to be there. We are uncompetitive now and these businesses are going to the wall now. Domestic energy prices are a completely different ballgame. Energy use in industry is much higher, so these bills are enormous.”

“You told us there that steel is critical for defence. There was much talk when British Steel was effectively nationalised about defence and that sovereign capability. The reality is that we simply do not make the right steels. The Business and Trade Committee went aboard HMS Cardiff in dock on the Clyde. We were told b…”

“I’ve got it! In the modern era, that all important first job is increasingly hard to find because of the Chancellor’s jobs tax and the massive 330-page Employment Rights Act 2025. Will the Secretary of State go to the new northern powerhouse Cabinet and impress upon the Chancellor the need to save our summer jobs and c…”

“While still at school, I played my part in the creative industries by playing in bands with names as louche as Street Lethal and Cheap Sweeties. It was very lucrative.”

“16. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support the creation of jobs for young people.”

“There are some concerns about the implementation. David and Tom, you seem quite keen on the idea, but what about the practicalities of this? We are talking here in particular about SMEs and small companies, which will not have big HR departments and will have very thin margins. Can you tell us a bit more what the conce…”

“David, is it the case that there are a few issues to work out, but nothing major?”

“Picking up on that, the Adam Smith Institute puts the cost of working this out and spending time on this at something like £600 million. That is a lot of money coming out of businesses, which are working on thin margins. At a time when the Government say their aim is growth, that surely is counterintuitive. Tom, is tha…”

“They might not have an HR director. A lot of companies will not have that. The people who are trying to run the business are going to have to take time out to implement all of this.”

“Businesses are really worried that there is that uncertainty.”

“Kate, we are talking here about a very nuanced and balanced risk-and-reward situation. Do the Government have an economic decision-making framework that integrates the security threat assessment with the economic cost-benefit analysis? Do you have that in place?”

“Ming Yang dangled the prospect of a very big investment in the Cromarty Firth green port, such that the First Minister of Scotland started to send it letters of comfort in a bid to drive around the UK Government. Who took the decision to exclude Ming Yang? Was it a decision taken by your Department, or was it taken els…”

“Have you any sense of whether this is a permanent exclusion, or is it a temporary thing? Do we know? Do we have any sense of that?”

“There was an attempt by Ming Yang and Octopus to put together a deal that would have allowed Ming Yang to make equipment, but it would be Octopus software in there. Was that something that came across your desk, or was that looked at elsewhere in the forest?”