Speeches by Malthouse.

“No, it is my own view.”

“Define failure. Hence my question about metrics.”

“I don’t think they are necessarily failing; they are doing broadly what they were set up to do, which is to funnel Government subsidy to business. I just find it rather an expensive way to do it.”

“We visited the digital catapult here in London, and I have to tell you it was a pretty shocking visit from my point of view: a glittery office, completely empty, obviously costing an absolute fortune, and they asked us for more money. It struck me then that they in particular were, effectively, a very expensive way of …”

“Forgive me if I slightly play catch-up on what you have explained, Professor. You covered a lot of areas. You have agreed effectively a kind of template equity split for, basically, the incubation of early-stage companies. That is basically for people who are incubating an idea to continue to use your facilities and re…”

“You effectively agree a split of what is going to come, if the thing either spins out or becomes licensed.”

“At that stage, you are shifting the negotiation up the value chain. You agree to some form of dilution at that stage.”

“I understand. I have a couple of questions. Obviously, your template deal that you have agreed has a range of values. How likely is it that universities are effectively going to compete for finite amounts of investment money by varying the equity splits? Dundee might say, “Well, we’ll take only 10%,” whereas Oxford mig…”

“It does.”

“Mr Speaker, you and I have been through this rigmarole many times over the past 14 months. I was going to ask today about the fate of Dr Abu Safiya, but I think we all know what will happen to him. I was going to ask about the babies who are freezing to death while blankets are being denied entry into Gaza, but I do no…”

“Just a final question on dementia. When I was at City Hall in 2014, I was involved in the thinking that eventually resulted in the Dementia Research Institute. At the time, there was a big advantage and a big stimulus to its creation. The big stimulus was that up to that point industry had collectively spent about £30 …”

“I am not sure I heard you say this. Do you think there is a prospect of us hitting the WHO deadline for curing Alzheimer’s by 2030?”

“The issue with industry always was that it does not want to show other people its homework because there is money involved. It was all researching the same dead ends and coming to the same conclusion, without people necessarily telling each other. The point in 2014 and 2015 was to say, “Look, this is such a challenge f…”

“Does it give lifetime protection?”

“I wanted to ask about research into some of the medieval hits that used to impact on us, which are, effectively, eminently eradicable, but which are not eradicated in parts of the world, such as leprosy and cholera. Are the barriers purely practical? Is there research into some that were previously big killers here and…”

“You say there are new cholera vaccines.”

“I have a final question for Dr Stockdale. I know that the Jenner Institute was instrumental in the covid vaccine. Presumably, there is a canteen in the Jenner where you all mill around and different research groups get together. Which group are you all talking about that will be the next big thing coming out of the Jen…”

“That is what all the talk is about in the canteen.”

“How much are you trying to raise?”

“Help us to manage it.”