Speeches by Murphy.

“Thank you, Chair and members of the Committee, for hearing this application. I seek this debate to mark the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth on 16 December 1775. We are asking for a three-hour debate on a Thursday, ideally 11 or 18 December, to coincide as closely as possible with the anniversary. Why does this…”

“With lots of pride and no prejudice, I will leave you.”

“That is the kind of joke you can make in the Chamber when we debate Austen’s legacy.”

“A Thursday would be great, but as close as possible to the anniversary would be ideal.”

“When I was elected for the first time last year, my constituents told me that they wanted this Labour Government to rebuild our public services, which is what our tax changes are delivering. Does the Minister agree that Opposition parties, of whatever colour, want the benefits of our investment in public services but a…”

“I just wanted to correct that I definitely did not oversee the climate assembly—sorry if I gave that impression. It was definitely a very minor advisory role. You have all been clear and all the polling shows that there has been an increase in climate polarisation but broad support for climate action remains. Why do yo…”

“What should the Government and Parliament be doing? You mentioned the thing about Andrew Neil but there are questions around freedom of speech and so on, which others would argue about. What should the Government be doing to ensure that there is a genuinely reflective debate within the media around the economic costs o…”

“At a previous panel when we had Luke Tryl in front of us from More in Common, I was quite surprised at the degree to which he said that the breakdown in the consensus was actually leading to more polarisation than maybe people had anticipated. The leader of the Conservatives changing their position and coming to an ant…”

“Moving on to broader media rather than misinformation—I think, Roger, you have highlighted this both in writing and earlier on in your evidence—is there a problem in that the media too often focuses on the short-term economic costs and does not take into the wider economic impacts of runaway climate change, adaptation …”

“Anything you want to add?”

“I was lucky enough to be one of the advisers on the climate assembly for Parliament and also ran about 10 juries when I worked outside Parliament. I fully agree that they are very positive in the sense of the engagement that they provide. I agree that you can find a representative group. My question always was, when tr…”

“Does it not suggest that in part up until now—I am not saying it is not an issue; it clearly is—the driving factor of support for climate change is not about the immediate benefits that it is going to provide around cost of living on your bills? The driving factor—I know that you talked about sacrifice—is about doing t…”

“I should add that the More in Common research also finds that people do think that renewables will bring their bills down, even if they do not think it has so far, which is interesting. Britain we made and others have found that there is beginning to be a bit of an uptick in local opposition to renewable energy project…”

“I was lucky enough to be one of the advisers on the climate assembly for Parliament and also ran about 10 juries when I worked outside Parliament. I fully agree that they are very positive in the sense of the engagement that they provide. I agree that you can find a representative group. My question always was, when tr…”

“I just wanted to correct that I definitely did not oversee the climate assembly—sorry if I gave that impression. It was definitely a very minor advisory role. You have all been clear and all the polling shows that there has been an increase in climate polarisation but broad support for climate action remains. Why do yo…”

“Does it not suggest that in part up until now—I am not saying it is not an issue; it clearly is—the driving factor of support for climate change is not about the immediate benefits that it is going to provide around cost of living on your bills? The driving factor—I know that you talked about sacrifice—is about doing t…”

“Is the Clean Energy 2030 target a problem in that regard? Should it be slowed down in order to ensure that proper consultation?”

“Roger, is that your experience as a journalist?”

“Welcome to the panel. How much of a problem is media misinformation funded by fossil fuel lobbyists and other vested interests and maligned actors a problem, Bob?”

“Moving on to broader media rather than misinformation—I think, Roger, you have highlighted this both in writing and earlier on in your evidence—is there a problem in that the media too often focuses on the short-term economic costs and does not take into the wider economic impacts of runaway climate change, adaptation …”