Speeches by Downie.

“How do we make sure that does not happen with the decisions being made now that we effectively actually join those things together and we avoid that decoupling?”

“Yes, you see grid connections, so 10-plus years, grid connections and decisions made in good faith that then you have a lovely planning permission that actually is utterly worthless, and those figures are then counted.”

“I want to ask some questions around renewables and network infrastructure siting and whether or not that will impact on consumer costs. As someone who has spent 10 plus years working in planning and communications in Scotland, largely on renewables projects, I have seen some good and some bad in terms of siting. We hav…”

“It feels a bit like we have built a system that we do not like, we do not think works, it is not effective, but we do not know how to change it, and we are not entirely sure if we should.”

“You think it was too small. What do you think would have been a more realistic number and do you think that was one of the major reasons they would have decided against it?”

“For the other two panel members: do you think the seven years that the Government argued they would take to deliver zonal pricing was correct or do you think that was maybe a little bit of being scared?”

“You mentioned some of the signals that you could give on location price signals. What might some of them be?”

“I will move on to questions around zonal pricing. We obviously had the decision over the summer of the Government on zonal pricing, which was after some delay. What effect do you think that delay had on different parts of the system? How effective do you think the package of measures that the Government have put forwar…”

“Does anyone else want to come in?”

“I get the pleasure of being the last person to question, which means I get a slight chance to reflect on what has happened so far. I have some questions specifically around zonal pricing but, reflecting on the points made so far, to my mind an efficient market is one that is transparent, least complex as possible and o…”

“That is really helpful. Thank you.”

“Short term is 2030, medium term is 2030 to 2035, and long term is post-2035?”

“What is medium term?”

“A truthful answer is always the answer we want.”

“What do you mean by “short run”?”

“I was going to say that it is a privilege to follow the hon. Member for Esher and Walton (Monica Harding). At the beginning of the debate, we talked about films with the shadow Chancellor, and the hon. Lady reminds us of “Back to the Future”, as that really was 2010 all over again. Perhaps a couple of steps to the righ…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for raising the issue of family farms; I have a number of them in my constituency. Does he agree that it is important to strike a balance in his part of the country, as well as in the devolved Administrations, and to put the tax burden in the correct place, while protecting small family farms?”

“Did the hon. Gentleman have a similar conversation with his constituents after Liz Truss’s disastrous Budget, which he supported? What did they say?”

“Last week, I spoke with trade unions in Scotland. They argue that the ideological ban on nuclear power is costing young people career opportunities for well-paid and long-term jobs. In my constituency, an SNP councillor is spreading misinformation and arguing against highly skilled nuclear jobs in the safe dismantlemen…”

“I thank the Prime Minister for his continued support of Ukraine. Going back to the announcement about the £4 billion deal with Indonesia at the G20, may I thank the Prime Minister for his efforts in securing that maritime partnership programme for Babcock? It will benefit people in my constituency and secure hundreds o…”