Speeches by Maynard.

“What about Get Me In! and Seatwave?”

“Let us say these numbers are correct, so festivals are 25% or more, top 60 venues are 46% and ticketing is 40% to 50%. You have massive vertical integration and dominant market share between operating the venues and running the ticketing. To me, that looks like something the CMA should be looking into and doing a marke…”

“But do you not recognise those market shares? Do you think they are just wrong?”

“What would you like to see changed at trading standards, given that fragmentation geographically? What is your recommendation there?”

“Sue, the DMCC Act comes in in April and there are lots of good tools in that toolbox. The chair of the CMA left rather quickly two weeks ago and has been replaced by the ex-head of Amazon UK. What confidence do you have that the CMA, which is ultimately the enforcer of that new Act, is going to be acting and using its …”

“I look forward to hearing how those thoughts develop and hearing more of them. That is that. We hear a lot about the EU reset. As per our briefing pack, the UK wants a veterinary agreement, wants professional qualifications to be mutually recognised, and wants to make it easier for our touring artists—it was in the Lab…”

“I have two questions, and will fire them both. You mentioned delusions twice, Mr Alexander, and we are talking about the fastest growth in the G7 and the race to a trillion, but goods exports are 11% below 2019, so they are going in the opposite direction. Trade intensity is down 1.7%. The rest of the G7’s trade intens…”

“Okay. The product regulation Bill. In my first PMQs, I asked about the idea that if it is in our national interest to align, we align, but if it is not in our national interest, we diverge. I got a very unclear answer back. I have looked at your published materials and it is always on a case-by-case basis, but there is…”

“Okay, but how will that work in reality? A load of manufacturers out there are going up the wall, kicking people out of work and having a terrible time. They need to know where they stand.”

“Nappies. Are nappies in the national interest?”

“But do you not get my point? How does this work?”

“But there is no visibility on what “case-by-case basis” means, apart from “in the national interest”. Can you please explain what you take to be the national interest when it is something innocuous and un-security-related? Does that mean that you will, or you will not, apply? I just do not understand.”

“No, that’s it. Just, I do not know what a manufacturer would do with that information.”

“Well, I wish I had got a better answer.”

“Do you agree that it is the FCA’s job to police standards of firms or not?”

“Who does the FCA report to?”

“So it is the Treasury that has the responsibility, not the DBT.”

“I have two nuts-and-bolts questions. The excitingly named multi-party interim appeal arbitration arrangement exists because the WTO appellate body is effectively defunct, as the US no longer funds it and will now not be funding it for a few years. That is a workaround to which Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the…”

“Similarly, we were in PEM, the pan-Euro-Mediterranean convention. I think that there are 25 signatories and it has been going since 2012. We now have our own perfectly formed equivalent. Perhaps that is rather a lot of work: we are essentially running our own set of harmonisation and standards separate from our Europea…”

“Mr Alexander and Ms Brooks, I have a very nuts-and-bolts question. Your teams are working hard on all these free trade agreements; we are grateful for that, and it is great for the country. Do you agree that it is in our national interest to publish data to show the results of those free trade agreements? If we have a …”