Speeches by Crichton.

“We have talked a lot about economics. Thank you all for coming in and for your stark evidence on what you, Eric, called this very shallow support for net zero. You described it as useless jargon. Emma, you have told us how there is stark evidence that people just do not get it, do not understand what climate change is.…”

“Yes, I get that, but looking for heat pumps by 2050, when you see it says that we can lose 60% of GDP within 20 years, it is a lot more urgent than that than persuading people to get going by 2050.”

“Hugh, what is the cost of doing nothing, of me doing nothing, personally?”

“My friend the Scottish journalist Jen Stout has just returned from the grey zone between Russian and Ukrainian forces, where to try to evacuate the wounded or even to wander outside for a moment is to invite death from the sky by drones. The message she brings back from Ukrainians on the frontline is that they will not…”

“The Yantar was intercepted in the north Atlantic, which is the UK’s new frontline but my constituents’ backyard. I was reassured by the preparedness of the RAF and the Royal Navy and grateful for their defence of our airspace and seaspace, but what assurance can the Minister give my constituents about our preparedness …”

“Thank you, Mr Speaker. When the Prime Minister next meets the President of the United States, will he ask him if he knows any reasonably priced hotels near the MetLife stadium in New Jersey, where the world cup final is to be held, and, as we are about to provide the biggest boost to whisky exports since our trade deal…”

“Even in the summer. The sea cliffs of St Kilda are among the highest in the UK. When you crane your neck up from the deck of what feels like a very small boat below those cliffs, it feels as if someone has dragged New York’s skyscrapers midway across the Atlantic. The sea stacks teem with bird life, giving an otherworl…”

“It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Derbyshire (Jonathan Davies) on securing the debate. We will hear a lot today about UNESCO world heritage sites across the UK, from the Giant’s Causeway to Saltaire and the Palace of Westminster itself. Magnifice…”

“I pay tribute to the Minister for his work, and to my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) for hers, in trying to engage regularly with ExxonMobil for the last couple of months. However, they failed to extract any viable proposal from the company on a way forward. Sharon Graham, the leade…”

“Scotland’s Deputy First Minister, Kate Forbes, told the SNP conference that her Government would not allow Labour to turn Scotland into a “nuclear playground”. I guess she knew her audience, but given her reputation as the common-sense member of that Government, she should have known better. That kind of playground pol…”

“Even though the local authorities have material benefits from the planning. It is difficult, but that is why we are here.”

“For example, my local authority is planning to take a 20% stake in commercial wind farms that it would be the planning authority over. There is a loop there.”

“Robbie, what if that community energy project was the municipality that is dealing with the planning?”

“To get to where we want to get—getting community energy as a material consideration in planning—should things like a wholly owned community energy scheme be ahead of one that is only 4% or one that is 20%?”

“Do we need different levels?”

“Very good. That is one definition of community energy. Then you have your community energy group, which is only 4%. I would not define that as community led—”

“We have been groping for weeks for a definition of community energy.”

“Of course, in the civil service community, when you talk about community energy it is: what is community and what is not community.”

“I did not know that was there either.”

“What we lack is this derogation of status for community energy in the planning process, and we lack a definition of community energy as well.”