Speeches by Norman.

“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…”

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

“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…”

“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…”

“Thank you very much.”

“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.”

“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?”

“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?”

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

“Thank you.”

“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…”

“Over the past few months, the Labour party has been generous indeed in offering the people of this country regular evidence of its remarkable incompetence, but even by its formidable standards it has excelled itself this week. The Prime Minister said some time ago in terms that he prefers Davos to Westminster, but this…”

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