Speeches by Crichton.

“You alluded to Sellafield possibly becoming an innovation centre for robotics in nuclear waste handling. Are you working on that?”

“I notice that the report calls for greater transparency with key stakeholders and for key stakeholders to reciprocate this transparency. That seems like a civil service criticism.”

“How do you get on with the National Nuclear Lab? What is your relationship like?”

“I am grateful for your forbearance, Madam Deputy Speaker. I very much welcome the announcement made by the Secretary of State today, although its arrival is almost as late as my own arrival in the Chamber this afternoon, for which I apologise. The ban on LGBT people serving in the armed forces until 2000 was a failure …”

“I do not know if the Leader of the House has been caught up in the wild swimming trend, which we in the Western Isles just call “swimming in the sea”. One of my constituents has taken that to the limit: Colin S. Macleod, charity fundraiser extraordinaire, has been swimming a mile’s length of the beach every day this ye…”

“Let me follow on from what Chris was saying and turn back to community energy and community energy generation. My new best friends, Jürgen Maier and Michael Shanks, have both said that they want to see 8 GW of power coming from community generation, yet your connection plans do not mention community energy at all.”

“Thank you. Finally, how will you ensure that all these regional energy strategic planners engage with communities? Do you need to signal on that too or do you have a system to do that?”

“Why not? If you are winnowing out the zombie projects but keeping your queue—your gateways 1 and 2—if you do not designate community energy and you do not give community energy projects a derogation to get connected quicker, they will not get connected at all, because they do not have the professional back-up of the le…”

“Hello, Fintan and Kayte. Thanks for sharing your expertise and your evidence. To pick up on the point that Wera was making, isn’t one of the best ways to engage communities to give them a direct share in the profit flowing through the pylons? Isn’t one of the lessons from Ireland and Denmark and Germany that the larger…”

“But if you categorise them as a technological solution rather than an ownership model you are disadvantaging them. Chris talked about the man from Whitehall deciding. Do you need a signal from Jürgen and from Shanks that they want community energy projects to have a derogation to skip the queue, for lack of better word…”

“I commend the hon. and learned Gentleman’s passion, but his problems are not unique. Anywhere in the highlands and islands of Scotland, or even in peripheral parts of England, has the same delivery problems as he does.”

“Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating all the winners of the Saltires, Scotland’s national book awards, particularly Jen Stout for her courageous and compassionate dispatches from the frontline in Ukraine? On a lighter note, I congratulate all the Gaelic singers and musicians who triumphed at the Trads…”

“indicated assent.”

“That is true. Our problems are not uniquely island problems, nor are they uniquely Scottish problems: they are demographic, economic and social problems for coastal communities around the whole UK. I know that that is not entirely the responsibility of the Minister. Having risked the ire of the Home Office, rather than…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq. I thank the Backbench Business Committee and the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) for this important debate. I particularly thank the right hon. Gentleman for the tribute he paid to our fishermen who face dangers at sea each day—“For th…”

“You can say the Western Isles.”

“I will turn my attention to GB Energy in a moment. First, I make another appeal to the Minister that from next year onwards the UK ought to allocate commercial bluefin tuna licences not on a “first come, first served” basis, or however the system works, but on a geographic and socioeconomic basis. While I have the Mini…”

“I congratulate my hon. Friend on obtaining his second Adjournment debate. Does he agree that in the transition away from industrial ports and towards tourism, both the UK and Scottish Governments must invest to avoid the pressure of tourism hotspots? We must use the full force of both Governments, and of capital, to in…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I thank the hon. Member for Farnham and Bordon (Gregory Stafford) for raising this important issue today. However, I wonder if he could come with me for a few seconds, away from Surrey, to Diracleit on the Isle of Harris, where I stood a few weeks ago. It is a…”

“I echo and add my condolences to the family of the late Lord John Prescott: one man, two Jags, three election wins. While COP29 in faraway Baku may make environmental problems seem far away too, climate change is very real: rising tides mean the legendry beach runway on the isle of Barra now has limited use; storm surg…”