Speeches by Grady.

“Some people are buying it on a speculative basis and, I suspect, trading more frequently. We need to explore whether things are needed to protect younger consumers from speculation in this area, in the same way as we have the GAMSTOP mechanism.”

“I know. The next question is this: if you were advising an 18-year-old and they had a modest amount of money to invest, what percentage would you suggest they invest in bitcoin?”

“We can spend all our time talking about all the stuff over here—meme coins—and thinking about regulating that, whereas we need to be getting on with creating a framework for all the good stuff over here.”

“Another way of putting it is that all the noise about random tokens and meme coins risks damaging all the great stuff that can happen on the other side.”

“I would not wish to fall out, but I think that you could open up a SIPP or an ISA as an 18-year-old and get access to an investment trust that invests in private equity with limited checks.”

“I briefly want to come back to Mr Taylor on the 18-year-olds investing in crypto. You said, Mr Taylor, that you cannot really get access to private assets as an 18-year-old investor. Is it not the case that you can through things such as investment trusts?”

“It is brilliant to listen to all this chat about thousands of new jobs and billions of pounds of investment, but we are not getting any of it in Glasgow, because the Scottish National party is against nuclear power. Nuclear power is a source of reliable baseload energy and is essential for security of supply. In fact, …”

“Professor Leunig, I have a point of clarification. You mentioned that houses worth over £500,000 would be indexed, so you wouldn’t take account of improvements or anything like that; you would just have a straight indexation. What inflation rate would you pick for that? Would it be a property-based inflation rate, CPI …”

“Thank you; that’s clear.”

“Sir Vince, the poorest families in Britain faced a double whammy because they lost Sure Start and they got the two-child cap. I am not aware of any academic evidence at the time that showed that the two-child cap would influence the number of children people would have.”

“The question is really twofold. First, did the Government take proper account of the long-term costs? Leaving aside the ethics—for me, this is deeply unethical—did they take account of the long-term costs of these two measures, in terms of lost earnings and lost prospects for the cohort of people affected? Secondly, do…”

“Mr Osborne, I say this gently, because I do not want to appear rude at the end of a long hearing and you have been very patient with us. Was there evidence about the influence of the policy on people’s decisions as to whether to have children? I ask because one of the key points—”

“Mr Osborne, did you have academic evidence—robust evidence, as opposed to just general say-so—about whether introducing the two-child cap would seriously influence people’s behaviour and decisions about having children?”

“Economic Secretary, you will have received a number of letters from MPs about the closure of funeral plans of C Mutual and Maiden Life. I don’t want your response to that, because you have to consider the letters, but there is a more fundamental point here. I have a constituent, for instance, who has paid about £8,700 …”

“You have invited me; I have accepted the invitation. Thank you.”

“And the Treasury?”

“Do you think that the Bank of England and the FCA have the necessary powers and technical understanding of the technology and risks involved in the technology to regulate it effectively?”

“It appears that the current approach of the Bank of England and the FCA is to monitor AI developments for now, and then step in if something goes wrong. Do you agree with that characterisation of their approach?”

“I am old enough to remember Lord Lawson having some problems with the listing of BP shares on the stock exchange. Has the Treasury thought about the scenario in which two years down the line there is a significant market correction—you may not be able to call it—not so much from a point of view of what you do about tha…”

“I will focus on chapter 2 of part 2 of the Bill, which provides that public bodies must operate in accordance with the highest ethical conduct. That is very important to my constituents in Glasgow. Shortly after I was elected, I met a mum and dad at one of my surgeries. They want to know how their beloved child died wh…”