Speeches by Gilmour.

“Great. I will move on to the next question, which is to Amanda and Chris. Why was there such delay in agreeing priorities and a final budget for NHSE for ’24-25? Again, a brief answer, please.”

“I do not want to put words into your mouth, but I think you are saying that bureaucracy is a necessary evil in the NHS.”

“Okay, now let’s talk about the bureaucracy.”

“So you are saying that it is the boards that are fantasy planning.”

“My first two questions are about finance. I am going to take them both together; I would really appreciate brief answers, please. Where do you consider the value to be in putting pressure on finance professionals to agree plans that they know to be unrealistic and which are based on unachievable assumptions and savings…”

“I do not mind—I mean, it is for all of them, really. It is just common sense.”

“I think you are all missing something, and I am famously bad at maths; it took me three attempts to pass my O-level maths. But given that a pitiful 6% of the NHS budget is spent on primary care, are you at all surprised that prevention is somewhere further down the list than you would want it to be? Ten minutes with yo…”

“That is disappointing, but there we are.”

“Yes, because there are the big modern bridges, and then the little ones, which were built for carts and horses, and now you have enormous lorries driving over them. Bridges are famously very expensive to repair, and yet you have no data on them. How do you work out how you are going to manage and plan an expenditure if…”

“Certainly in my constituency, to use the word “diabolical” for the roads would be quite kind.”

“I understand the statutory responsibility that local government has, but it is a very difficult thing to explain to the people who pay their taxes.”

“I am getting quite frustrated by this burden business, because, in my mind, you are accountable for the state of the roads, ultimately. You cannot keep on saying that it is up to local authorities and that we have to put the burden on them. I am a new MP. I am an MP for a Devon and Somerset constituency. There are road…”

“Other than the fact that I try to use the A303, no. My constituency is Tiverton and Minehead, and the A303 is one of the roads that one might choose to get to London on. The issue around Stonehenge has been a problem for a very long time. I wondered where we are in terms of the tunnel, the road and things like that.”

“Going back to the issue of pavements, if at the moment you are looking only at road surfaces, there is a very real danger that the pavements and cycleways are not in a condition that supports the objectives, which are your objectives, on accessibility and active travel. We have received some information from the Nation…”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“It is the status quo, really.”

“Moving on to bridges—”

“I congratulate the hon. Member for South Dorset (Lloyd Hatton) on securing the debate. I have listened with interest to all hon. Members, and it is a welcome exception that we are speaking in the House with unity and with one voice, from a shared sense of the value of free speech, to stop the bullies who use SLAPPs to …”

“I am flabbergasted. I find the whole thing flabbergasting, to be honest. I am learning.”