Speeches by Hobhouse.

“The hon. Gentleman mentions public trust; we all understand how important it is to restore that, but how can that happen if the very things needed to support the public and restore trust—our hospices and the charitable sector—are being hit by this Government’s measures?”

“President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Mike Huckabee as the next US ambassador to Israel. Is my hon. Friend worried, as I am, that a man who has called for a one-state solution will jeopardise the situation? Does she agree that the UK Government should make it clear to the US that we believe firmly in a two-state s…”

“We say that all the time. We have said it for a long time. Do you have any ideas how to do that or have you made any proposals to the Government on what they need to do to speed up the planning process? We have a consultation now from the Government. It seems to be one of the biggest blocks to a lot of progress towards…”

“Thank you for coming. I have a more general question. The energy transition is not just transitioning away from CO2 or fossil carbons; the whole energy future looks different. We used to have big, centralised generators and now it is all decentralised and little. When you are talking about dispatchable energy, how shou…”

“Yes, sort of. It was an outside question, but I wanted to understand.”

“Let us come to the difficult issue of planning and consent. That takes a long time and there are delays in the system. Have you had any thoughts on how the planning system could be sped up while not riding roughshod over communities and community consent? Kayte O’Neill: We talked in our report about planning being one …”

“The oil and gas giants were making eye-watering profits when the Conservative Government finally introduced a levy, although it had a loophole that let the oil and gas companies off the hook. The Government should support the Liberal Democrat amendment, which demonstrates how much of a missed opportunity that was, and …”

“I rise to speak briefly in support of new clause 2. I welcome the Government finally scrapping the unfair investment allowance loophole for the oil and gas giants, which the Liberal Democrats have advocated for and called for since the previous Government introduced the levy—too late, and half-heartedly—in May 2022. Oi…”

“Does the hon. Lady not recognise that we are in a transition period, which we need in order to get to net zero? Of course, we need to protect jobs, but the transition to net zero is essential.”

“I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention. It is absolutely by putting in place the measures for transition that we will meet net zero. If we continue with business as usual and continue to listen to people who ultimately do not understand that unless we get to net zero our whole economy will suffer, then people will …”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. The whole argument is that we will continue to rely on oil and gas for the time being, but unless we start to change something, on the current projection we will not get to net zero as urgently as we need to. Progress has been too slow, so the longer we hesitate the mor…”

“Indeed. I could not agree more and I thank the hon. Gentleman for clarifying the figures. That is why something needed to change and something needed to give. I repeat that I hope Government Members can support our new clause 2, because it matters. It will lay open what has been squandered and what difference we could …”

“I have a very simple question to ask the right hon. Gentleman: does he believe that climate change is happening and that we need to get to net zero by 2050, or does he believe it is all a hoax?”

“Avon and Somerset police is doing an excellent job at Bath Christmas market, challenging any individual seen behaving inappropriately towards a woman or young female. What more can the Ministry of Justice do to tackle street harassment?”

“Some 9,000 women in their 30s left teaching in 2022-23. This is the single biggest age group leaving teaching in Bath and across the country. Will the Government improve maternity pay for teachers and teaching assistants?”

“It is not local planning authorities that stop house building, but land supplies and land banking, as we have already heard this afternoon. In Bath and north-east Somerset alone, something like 2,000 homes have received planning permission but have not been built yet. Should the Government not concentrate on land banki…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his powerful speech. Does he agree that a lot of problems have arisen from the poor funding of local authorities, where building control services have been severely undermined?”

“rose—”

“Is it not the case that the conversations that patients will have with doctors will bring out whether they have been coerced or are suffering intolerably? The criteria are about suffering, not whether somebody worries that they are a burden.”

“I appreciate that the hon. Gentleman talks to us as a medical professional and we need to listen to his views. But is it not true that any medical assessment is an approximation; something that cannot be said for certain? For this decision too, we cannot be 100% certain, but that is life. We cannot make legislation tha…”