Speeches by Crichton.

“Leaning on Chris’s previous experience, lagoon technology is like a salmon net across a river rather than a bridge or a dam.”

“Thank you all for coming in. It is either underwhelming or it is huge; it is billions or is it millions. How feasible is it? Sue, how confident are you that the technology exists for a tidal range lagoon?”

“Athanasios, just quickly, because we are running out of time, could you sum up for us the risks and the potential benefits for the whole of the Severn estuary and for the UK as a whole from these tidal projects?”

“Shaun, where exactly is the RSPB on this? You say that there is no problem in principle, but, when you write a drama, there is text and subtext—no problem in principle, but the subtext is “anywhere except here”.”

“It sounds like this is why GB Energy was built.”

“What do you need from the UK Government to get this commercial demonstration project into the lagoons? What two or three things do you need?”

“No rare birds will die.”

“Somehow we can ascertain from that data that these projects are going to be harmful to wildlife. Are there rare species at stake? What is at stake? Is it species displacement or species extinction?”

“I have a quick question on the data. Shaun, you said the data is from 2015.”

“As you know, Mr Speaker, I am alarmed by news that the Press Association, which assiduously covers our exchanges here, may cut back its dawn-to-dusk coverage through redundancies. Hansard faithfully records our words, but it is reporters in the Press Gallery who bear witness to the human drama here, and no amount of AI…”

“As other Scottish MPs have mentioned, this deal is good news for the whisky industry. It means, “Uisge beatha gu leòr”—whisky galore. It is also good for food producers, such as crofters in the Western Isles, whose exports of lamb products now face zero tariffs, and the salmon farming industry, which supports 420 jobs …”

“Sue, you have anticipated my question about what role trade unions could play in pathways into work. Earlier on, you mentioned that it was also a question of resource. I presume that that is resource in the FE sector—that is, in the college sector?”

“That works at scale, but, as you said, a lot of the construction industry consists of small and medium-sized enterprises. Can they be expected to take the risk of taking somebody on and training them up?”

“Thank you both for coming in. Tom, I was fascinated to hear what you said about on-site skills hubs, and I wondered whether they are run by the industry or by colleges of further education. What kind of collaboration do you see between the two, and is it sufficient?”

“Name them and praise them.”

“That works at scale, but, as you said, a lot of the construction industry consists of small and medium-sized enterprises. Can they be expected to take the risk of taking somebody on and training them up?”

“That was going to be my question as well. Is there a way round this? Are there examples?”

“A quick point that we might not have teased out in other evidence is that the skills gap goes deeper than FE colleges and industry—it goes back to the education curriculum. Any thoughts on that?”

“Encouragingly, I saw that approach at Harland and Wolff in Belfast just the other week, with welders teaching apprentices full time. That is their job, basically. I have also seen it at Arnish. Hinkley Point is always cited as the example of how to do it, but we have heard evidence from other people that there is no cl…”

“Sue, you have anticipated my question about what role trade unions could play in pathways into work. Earlier on, you mentioned that it was also a question of resource. I presume that that is resource in the FE sector—that is, in the college sector?”