Speeches by Doogan.

“It has been going on for a long time.”

“Is it novel for commercial yards to build blocks for complex warships?”

“Pretty soon it is going to be all Ferguson has, and that is not great.”

“Indeed. That having been said, though, would it be unfair to characterise block work like that? Would it be infill that would be really helpful to have between orders?”

“It is good for Ferguson's to get the block work on the Type 26, is it not? It is a good synergy between commercial shipbuilding and supporting complex warship construction. That is good, but building blocks is a long way away from building ships. There is steel work in building blocks, and that is pretty much it. That …”

“On that point, Ferguson’s is state-owned, and the Scottish Government has spent £500 million on it now. If it is just about the state funding shipyards, why does it have no work on its order books beyond what it has received from BAE Systems?”

“Yes, but I am asking you; could you give me an answer in relation to it?”

“Do you think we sometimes forget we are on an island?”

“Low volume and specialist is the market that we need to get after.”

“You talked about access to finance and the cost of that finance, and you talked about investment in yards that Governments make. So, there are two things. Is that all it is? If the UK decides to wake up and smell the coffee, is it the case that all the UK has to do is to start giving commercial yards in the UK access t…”

“You mentioned quite clearly in your earlier contributions about the wholly unfair playing field that commercial yards are up against internationally, and that state subsidies of foreign yards are not even subtle; they are explicit. Meanwhile, in the UK, everything is getting played with a straight bat, and we wonder wh…”

“Three or four years hence, how effective do you think the National Shipbuilding Strategy is? I am thinking of issues like fleet solid support.”

“Good morning, Mr Chant. We do not have a shipbuilding tsar any more. Do we miss him?”

“On the Small Vessel Replacement Programme, Ferguson’s scored really highly on quality, so the workforce can turn out the goods; that is established. Where we did not manage to get it over the line was on cost and price. I hear what you are saying about investing in the means of production and lowering the labour hours …”

“I would just like to follow up on the hon. Gentleman’s talking down of Scottish skills and training—classic Labour. How does he reconcile the disparaging characteristic that he paints of Scottish skills, entrepreneurialism and training when Scotland has, for 10 years running, been the top destination for foreign direct…”

“Yes, it had to come, and I am relieved that there is a cleavage. Where I diverge with them is on a wealth tax. I see that we are in a state—the UK is not a country—where poverty levels among our children are rising in every country in the UK except Scotland. In Scotland, it costs us £150 million a year—it will be £200 …”

“That is a welcome and comprehensive round-up of some of the broader issues on this, but it speaks to the fiscal innumeracy that says, “There is no cost to any of this; we can just help ourselves to that and it won’t have any impact.” As the right hon. Member for Wetherby and Easingwold (Sir Alec Shelbrooke) pointed out…”

“The first line of the Tories’ motion gets to the word “manifesto”, and I accept their premise that that is what this is about—it is about the commitment “not to increase taxes on working people, and not to increase National Insurance or the basic, higher or additional rates of Income Tax”. I do not think that is a tall…”

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”

“Will the hon. Gentleman take an intervention from a Member on the Opposition Benches?”