Speeches by Kane.

“What would you like to see?”

“The UK Government gave £8 million a year in 2025 for a programme that went to 2030, but Northern Ireland’s Executive programme ends this time next year. For you, what does that interregnum look like?”

“Thank you, gentlemen. Rob, can you describe the nature of your relationship with the PSNI when it comes to the Paramilitary Crime Task Force?”

“Do you have any initial response to Fleur Ravensbergen’s scoping report that was commissioned by the British and Irish Governments about the disbandment of paramilitaries?”

“Do you have any initial response to Fleur Ravensbergen’s scoping report that was commissioned by the British and Irish Governments about the disbandment of paramilitaries?”

“What would you like to see?”

“The UK Government gave £8 million a year in 2025 for a programme that went to 2030, but Northern Ireland’s Executive programme ends this time next year. For you, what does that interregnum look like?”

“Thank you, gentlemen. Rob, can you describe the nature of your relationship with the PSNI when it comes to the Paramilitary Crime Task Force?”

“So there will be co-operation rather than a chain of command. Could budgets go up and down depending on who takes responsibility?”

“So you see a way forward in terms of the timescale, with the Ravensbergen report in August?”

“May I associate myself with the remarks of the Secretary of State in paying tribute to the Police Service of Northern Ireland, who police in extraordinarily complex circumstances? They are targeted by terrorists, but our police forces here are also targeted by terrorists. As a Mancunian, I remember PC Stephen Oake, who…”

“Secretary of State, you mentioned the pressures that all police forces face in the United Kingdom. The UK Government is setting up a new national police service, and I want to get your view on how that would impact the chain of command with the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the National Crime Agency there? How…”

“Forgive me, but we have to point out that the Liberal Democrats were part of the coalition that started austerity in 2010.”

“Do you still think this is organised thuggery? Is it organised criminality to do with the drugs gangs that you talked about? Is there a far-right, alt-right rise behind this, which we know chief constables are slightly worried about across the UK?”

“It is paramilitary groups; I am not talking about legitimate St Patrick’s Day or other parades.”

“Cosplay: dressing up. People dressing up in military uniforms and marching in lockstep happens all the time in my local park, but it is usually the local civil war society or medieval society, yet that still goes on terms of the conflict in Northern Ireland. The Irish and British Governments appointed Fleur Ravensberge…”

“February will represent the 25th anniversary of the opening of the second runway at Manchester airport in my constituency, with capacity for 60 million passengers. Does the Secretary of State agree that his announcement will finally allow the airport to achieve its full potential?”

“There is a lot to ponder, for sure. I am going to stick to my question on legislative change, if that is okay. This individual threatened to string people up, threatened to skin them alive, to force confessions from them. He then did it anyway and played those confessions to the victims’ families. He ended up with a ho…”

“On skills, looking at our reports around those agglomeration issues, there seems to be a 31% productivity gap between Belfast and Derry/Londonderry, yet Londonderry/Derry is served by both a train line and an airport. It seems to me that in Northern Ireland you have to start from where you are at, and 82% of graduates …”

“Why did you not export them to Manchester? That would be my next question.”