Speeches by Cross.

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”

“Family businesses are crucial to our high streets, including mine in Inverurie, Ellon, Turriff and Huntly. Indeed, they are the backbone of our high streets, yet this Government’s national insurance contributions changes and Employment Rights Bill, and their slashing of business property relief, will have a huge impact…”

“We do not know how the north is performing relative to this?”

“Mr Hain, you said audiences are decreasing and revenues are decreasing. Is that for STV as a whole or for north in particular? What are the figures for the north region? Have they been consistently falling?”

“Quickly on the digital side and the move to digital access and coverage, you mentioned previously that the digital figures are more a worldwide indication and how linear is more what we are seeing at home. Do you have figures to show what parts of the country or where the difference between linear and digital is at the…”

“But you said we do not know if they are in decline any differently in the north versus anywhere else because it is not split out. How do we know what the viewing figures in the north are doing if you cannot split them out?”

“You would not be able to say, for example, if the north region licence is beating its sales targets? You are not able to say that, yes or no?”

“I think it is more the news side that is of concern, but we will leave it there. Thank you very much.”

“Given the north has 40% viewing figures compared to say 25% in central, it certainly says to me that it is a hugely valued resource up in the north. Even if we could look into those figures to see where the decline is coming from—because if the decline is coming from a smaller base versus the decline coming from the no…”

“I am sure they are a huge asset and we would not want to lose them, along with anyone else up in the north. So they are on target and they have good viewing figures, yet the decision is that is where we will make the cuts?”

“Are the north on target or off target?”

“I want to understand a wee bit more about the coverage and the impact this will have on coverage and relevance of news to viewers in the north of Scotland. My understanding is that there are about 1.3 million people covered by the licence in the north of Scotland, a huge number, particularly if you look at the proporti…”

“We urgently need to restore confidence and stability in our oil and gas sector, or we will be here again and again as more and more businesses suffer and more and more jobs are lost, whether in my constituency, across north-east Scotland, in Scotland as a whole or in the UK as a whole—there are oil and gas and energy j…”

“When was the Attorney General informed that the case was going to collapse?”

“This fund was set up to act as a sweetener to our fishing communities after they were completely sold out in the Government’s EU-Brexit reset. In that negotiation, 12 years of access to our seas were given away. Scotland lands three-quarters of the tonnage of fish in the UK and 60% of the value of UK fishing comes into…”

“The Government’s pride in place initiative—their equivalent of levelling up—should be great and should be felt across Scotland, but unfortunately we are feeling the opposite in north-east Scotland because of the Government’s energy policies. Our high streets need regeneration after a decade of disastrous decline in the…”

“I sometimes find myself watching Holyrood TV, and most of what happens after the electronic voting is endless people checking whether they have voted—wanting to clarify whether the machine has worked. Given that there are 120-odd Members in Holyrood and 650-odd Members in this place, I am not entirely sure that that is…”

“Devolution sounds like, and should be, a fantastic opportunity. It should bring decisions closer to home with policies that fit the uniqueness of local areas and communities such as mine, where accountability and impact are more closely linked. That is the theory but in practice, certainly in Scotland’s case, the reali…”

“I want to pick up on the point about working with other parties to get a majority. The first thing that comes to mind is the SNP’s venture with the Scottish Greens after the last election in Scotland. Would the hon. Member reflect on how damaging that was, particularly for north-east Scotland, whether we are talking ab…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his contribution. Although he is speaking about the Borders, we are seeing something similar in the north-east. We have a huge amount of energy infrastructure across our region, whether that be pylons, batteries or substations, and the communities feel like things are being done to them. Our …”