Speeches by Coleman.

“But do you not think that—ironically, seeing as people do not seem to keep the weight off for an extended period at the moment—the drugs over the long term could increase obesity in the general population by reducing people’s motivation to tackle the root causes?”

“I understand that, and we have discussed that quite extensively. You say that prevention should always be the first line of defence. Your share price is rocketing. I wish we all had shares in Lilly; we would all be a lot richer. Do you not have a financial interest against prevention? I am not talking about morals; I a…”

“There are all sorts of other conditions that people take medication for. It is a bit boring, but—”

“I must stop you there. What makes you say that nobody wants to be on medication for life? People who have high blood pressure take high blood pressure pills for life.”

“Can I ask a couple of questions about other aspects? We have an obesogenic environment, which I know Professor Jebb has done a lot of work on. The Committee has talked a lot about trying to reduce the obesogenic environment through healthy food and so on. Does getting the easy pharma jab not reduce the urgency of tackl…”

“At this stage, do you think that NICE should look again at the assessment it has already made?”

“Thank you very much. Dr Coelho, do you have any views on this?”

“When you say that the assessment has been robust, that suggests that it is using the best available data and a whole range of other factors. However, the recentness of the analysis is important. If things are changing all the time, how robust is the data?”

“It would be good to get the views of Dr Pegg and Dr Coelho as well.”

“When you say “potentially”, that suggests that you see upsides and downsides. What are the downsides?”

“That is very helpful. Given the speed at which these drugs are being adopted and given that we are learning all the time about what they are doing, what impact they are having and what impact they are not having over the long term, is there a case for NICE to assess and reassess the drugs and the advice it gives to Gov…”

“When you say “potentially”—?”

“Would you say that it should be looking at reassessing the work that it has already done, because there is now more data out there?”

“Thank you all very much for coming. I would like to understand weight regain a little better. If people cannot actually keep the weight off, it is just a licence to print money for pharmaceutical companies. Professor Jebb, the Committee had some evidence from NICE in August that suggested that weight regain occurs afte…”

“Not for the first time, my hon. Friend puts it much better than I could. Cyber-security is an absolutely key pillar of the Trinity House agreement, and AI, quantum and semiconductor investment should be things that Germany and Britain work on together, side by side, to defend our joint security and also contribute to t…”

“I just worry that people are going to be encouraged to spend lots of money on going to the gym but still eat crap food.”

“So it is food, not exercise, that matters.”

“For adults?”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Twigg. I have been passionate about strengthening ties between the UK and Germany for most of my adult life, ever since I spent two years living in West Berlin in the mid-1980s—vor der Wende—before the wall came down. I lived in Kreuzberg, a neighbourhood that at that …”

“I have two doctors in front of me, which is one of the joys of being on the Committee. I want to ask a question that bugs me a lot. Everyone goes on about eating less—that the cure is to eat less and more healthily, if you can afford it, and to do exercise. If you had to balance the relative importance for fighting obe…”