Speeches by Taylor.

“With that answer in mind, your terms of reference are set by the Prime Minister. Your budget is set by the Cabinet Office. You report to the PM annually, as you have said, the appointment of yourself and the other commissioners is done by the Cabinet Office and approved by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister has bee…”

“Do you see it as your role to make the case for those recommendations?”

“That is a helpful clarification. Moving on slightly now, the Prime Minister has asked you to carry—”

“The Liberal Democrats welcome the publication of the strategy, and I am particularly glad to note the involvement of the Ben Kinsella Trust in formulating it. The trust does remarkable work with young students and teachers to make sure that we take a holistic approach to knife crime, which is badly needed. That is part…”

“Thank you very much. A bit of a looser question to start with. Is the independence important and how is that delivered?”

“I, like so many Londoners, woke up this morning to the news of this cowardly attack. I felt that horrible pit of disgust in my stomach, and a deep concern for my Jewish friends and neighbours. I want to express my heartfelt sympathies to Jews across London and the country, and to affirm that hate like this will never b…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I thank the hon. Member for St Helens South and Whiston (Ms Rimmer) for securing this important debate. Engagement without condition is not diplomacy; it is complicity. Promoting the values of democracy, respect for the rule of law and protection of religious …”

“I agree primarily with the point made by the hon. Member for Alloa and Grangemouth (Brian Leishman), who listed promises made by the Prime Minister. I would like to see the Prime Minister held to account a little more for his promises, which are undelivered—just like the mail in Sutton and Cheam. Sutton residents in SM…”

“In 1884, parts of London would receive up to seven deliveries per day. By 1879, that had increased to 12 daily deliveries—can Members imagine? Today, in some parts of Sutton and Cheam or Worcester Park, we are lucky to see one delivery a week. That is 150 years of progress.”

“It is encouraging to hear that the Government have sought reassurances, but nothing short of a fundamental revolution in my local delivery office will see postal votes delivered even within the weekend on which they are expected to arrive. Can the Minister detail what those reassurances involve? Do they require additio…”

“That is helpful. Finally from me, to whom would the national oversight mechanism be accountable?”

“Secondly, I think there is a recommendation that the mechanism should be able to impose sanctions. What would that consist of? How would that system work? Again, how would parliamentary oversight validate proposed sanctions?”

“This is a good opportunity to come in with a slightly later question that fits with what we are talking about. You have given quite a detailed explanation of how you envision the national oversight mechanism working and what its roles will be, but how will it interact with Parliament? What would the different responsib…”

“The Prime Minister.”

“We may debate whether the Prime Minister’s appointment of Peter Mandelson showed a weirdly rushed, catastrophic lack of judgment or just a stunning level of disengaged naivety. Either way, the British public are rightly wondering whether decency in public office is just too much to ask. I reassure them on behalf of the…”

“Residents across my constituency, particularly those in the SM1, SM2 and SM3 postcodes, have been reporting issues with their deliveries for years. Local social media is full of people reporting one-day-a-week deliveries and asking which other roads that is occurring on. I have visited my delivery office for the last t…”

“I thank the Home Secretary for this action, which is proportionate; she seems to have been taking lessons from the Liberal Democrats on that. I reiterate Liberal Democrat calls to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and encourage her to come forward with a timetable for that legislation to be delivered. …”

“The abolition and the creation of ALBs, to achieve largely the same aims, in different cases and examples.”

“To pick up that point, through your years of appearances before us—please be reassured that we do feel it is headline news and extremely exciting—what drift have you got from the questioning? Is there anything you feel needs to be dug into that has not been, or where there is a fundamental misunderstanding between how …”

“Or providing better services. I don’t know whether you can give any examples.”