Speeches by Norman.

“Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker—[Interruption.]”

“Mr Speaker, I am not quite sure what mental obfuscation is filling my head this morning, but I thank you again. It is my happy task to open by saying that today sees the retirement of Dawn, a stalwart of the Tea Room. I am sure that I speak for the whole House in wishing her a very happy retirement. On a very different…”

“Touché, Mr Speaker. Will the Leader of the House give us the forthcoming business?”

“I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to require the Secretary of State to publish and implement a plan for cleaning and improving the water quality of the River Wye; and for connected purposes. As shadow Leader of the House, I am rarely allowed to speak on behalf of my constituents from the Back Benche…”

“Like some of our leading podcasters, we love a storm cloud or two in business questions. Sure enough, the poor Government have been desperately hoping that recent events in America would drive the storm clouds away from the UK economy. Even though the news from Washington DC has been startling, to say the least, it has…”

“Will the Leader of the House give us the forthcoming business?”

“This week we have seen a Government who talk about growth but have proved themselves unwilling to support transformational investment at the AstraZeneca plant in Liverpool. At the same time, they appear keen to expand the sums being paid in relation to the Chagos islands to a number some 250 times larger than that bein…”

“Will the Leader of the House give us the forthcoming business?”

“You have already given an example in which two Departments acknowledge there is a problem and are perfectly content to say there is no remedy. In that case they could say, “Well we have had due regard to this and you can sod off”.”

“Thank you. Let us talk a little about the criticisms you have made of this language of similar duty of due regard versus legal duty. What is your concern there? Do you think the adoption of that language would have the effect of watering down the commitments rather than increasing and spreading them?”

“I should declare an interest, in that I am the chair of a new specialist technical university in Hereford. I want to focus a little on employment services and education. Do you think there is scope to expand the Covenant in a way that would improve the quality of education and training in the transition from service ou…”

“Thank you.”

“I echo what Calvin said about your service to families; I am sure that feeling is widely shared across the Committee. You will have heard my exchange earlier with Nick Pope about education and employment. You have been very eloquent, although possibly quite restrained, on the failures of communication and awareness, an…”

“For extension across Government, I do not think anyone contests that. I mean an extension of the areas of support or the Covenant.”

“So if you had to choose one area, Vanessa, it would be childcare. No prejudice to the others, but it would be childcare. How about you, Collette and Rebecca?”

“That is interesting. Thank you. Vanessa?”

“So just extending a process could count as due regard, even though no substantive regard is really being paid.”

“Choosing an idea at random. Okay, wonderful, thank you. Would you like to add to that, Vanessa or Rebecca?”

“The concern you have is that due regard does not really mean anything, and this demonstrates why?”

“Any MP would have a worry about whether resort to an ombudsman was a solution to anything, frankly, let alone in the time concerned.”