Speeches by Glover.

“Secretary of State, everyone is hoping that people living on the east side of the country in London and Edinburgh are going to get an early Christmas present, with next month’s introduction of the largest timetable change on the east coast main line for a very long time. There is quite a lot of disquiet in the industry…”

“You are quite right to raise the spectre of May 2018. It comes at an interesting time. I mean the term “veteran” in the most complimentary sense, but in Sir Andrew Haines and Robin Gisby, we have two of the industry’s veterans either having retired or about to retire. Do you feel that the loss of such experienced veter…”

“Secretary of State, you will be aware that, more than a year ago, the infrastructure was completed and ready between Bicester and Bletchley for the proposed introduction of a half-hourly Oxford to Milton Keynes passenger service. Admittedly, that line is being used for freight and charters from time to time, but it rea…”

“There are lots of things I could follow up but I do not want to hog the time.”

“Can I just push you a bit further on that? Even that is interesting, that Chiltern was appointed the operator in March. Why did it take until after the railway was commissioned to decide who was going to operate it and get all of that in place? I am sorry if I am sounding flippant, but presumably it did not just sudden…”

“Constituencies such as mine, which is Didcot and Wantage in Oxfordshire, have seen some of the largest housing growth in the country. A consistent source of frustration for constituents is the fact that health, transport and large-scale leisure, et cetera, do not keep up with that. It has also been highlighted as an is…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Western. I put on the record very briefly the Liberal Democrats’ support for the proposed updating and expansion of maritime regulations.”

“Yes, it is one of many excellent and logical ways of deciding things here. Very good to see you in the Chair. Pleasure to serve under your chairship, we might say in a different place, Ms Smith. The Government have announced that they intend to remove funding for level 7 apprenticeships for people over the age of 21. N…”

“Can I probe that just a little further? Because I understand what you are saying, there is a fixed budget, choices have to be made and so on. If we had £1 for every time we had heard that one, we would be very rich. But the worry is that in light of some things we have been discussing—AI, robotics, data, all this high-…”

“Yes, indeed. Thank you, new Chair.”

“You are nodding vigorously as well, Rebecca.”

“I shall be concise so that we can be away well before 11. I thank everybody for attending the debate. It is welcome to have had contributions from all three main parties. It was predominantly a well-spirited debate, with a lot of agreement. It was good to hear about schools other than Europa that offer the IB: Hockeril…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Harris. I join other hon. Members in commending the hon. Member for Crawley (Peter Lamb) for bringing this very important topic to Westminster Hall and, indeed, for his impressive efforts in getting media coverage before the debate had even occurred—I might ask him la…”

“My hon. Friend makes a valuable point and articulately summarises the wide range of choice in schools that there is separately from the IB. He is right to mention the Europa School in Culham in my constituency; I will say more about that school later and explain why it is so important to the Government’s objectives for…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered funding for the International Baccalaureate in state schools. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Roger. The international baccalaureate—which I will henceforth refer to as the IB, but I hate acronyms, so I wanted to say it properly to start with—establishes…”

“Q13. I recently had the privilege of visiting Fitzwaryn school, the only special school in my Oxfordshire constituency, to see the excellent care and education it provides. Given the urgent need for more funding for additional special schools and to enable special schools to spread their expertise to mainstream schools…”

“I very much agree. The fact that there is a governor of this school in my hon. Friend’s constituency shows that these schools often have wide catchment areas, because of the fairly unusual and very popular offer that they make, which is attractive to many in the surrounding areas. It is unclear what these schools shoul…”

“I very much agree. The risk, the consequence, of this Government decision is that it pushes people towards independent schools. Surely that is not in line with the Government’s strongly stated views on private versus state education. Additionally, those teachers trained to deliver the programme may also opt to move to …”

“My hon. Friend gives a strong example of another school offering that type of qualification. It is also in that Oxford to Cambridge growth corridor, which is so important to the Government. The Government have committed to increasing the number of those pursuing further education, whether academic or technical, and the…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I thank the hon. Member for West Bromwich (Sarah Coombes) for bringing up this very important topic, which as a species we have been grappling with for a couple of decades, so that we can talk about how to deal with it in the UK. It was interesting to hear of her …”