Speeches by Arthur.

“I welcome that intervention; I think that was a leading question. Of course it is not good enough. I do not think that anybody here thinks that it is good enough, including the Minister. Unfortunately, at present there are very few clinical trials in this country for rare cancer treatments. Families such as Kira’s shou…”

“Absolutely. Last week, I attended a reception for the Eve Appeal. I was really struck by the fact that early diagnosis was a big feature of what the charity was talking about, and I will come on to that in just a second. As a consequence of the lack of recognition of the symptoms of rare cancers, too many people are di…”

“I thank my hon. Friend and office neighbour for making that point, which was also made by Eve Appeal. I cannot remember the statistics, but there is a stark difference. I talked about this issue when I met the Minister yesterday and she gently pointed out to me that it is not just in healthcare where women are dismisse…”

“With the leave of the House, I would like to thank a few people. First and foremost, I thank the Minister for her speech. I met her yesterday, and she was filled with genuine passion, energy and excitement for this subject. It is great to see her come here today and use her power to support this Bill, and let us hope t…”

“Absolutely. There is fantastic expertise in our universities across the UK; as I say that, I have to refer hon. Members to my registered interests because of my connections with the university sector. There is much more that we can do to attract the best researchers to the UK and build capacity in UK universities. The …”

“The challenge is devolution. I am a huge fan of devolution, but often the UK is at its best when it works together, particularly on healthcare. I hope that in time we will see progress and the nations will work together. I do not want to overstate this, but there have been discussions across the UK about how we could w…”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for the sensitive way he is navigating through this. However, is it not the case that people defined as economically inactive include those who are retired? Is he suggesting that we go around the golf courses and bingo halls in our constituencies and get those people into the workforce, build…”

“Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?”

“I am not sure if that was an insult or not. First, I should declare an interest by saying that back in 2015, an overseas healthcare worker saved my life. It was my cardiologist, and I put on record my thanks to him. The right hon. Gentleman will know that the population in the UK is falling, and we are getting older as…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for the national debate he has stimulated about this; we should all be grateful to him for that. I wondered what advice was already available to parents from the national health service, particularly in Scotland. I could find no guidance on screen time on the NHS Scotland website. On the website …”

“By explaining that there are so many fragmented and—no doubt—contradictory sources of information, surely the right hon. Gentleman is making the argument for there to be a single source of advice to parents right across the United Kingdom? Surely this Bill will create an authoritative set of guidance for parents that t…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for introducing this Bill—he is reaching for the stars with it, quite literally. I am proud to have a company in my constituency called Alpha Data, which is just 50 metres from my constituency office, but the products it designs are 250 miles above us. It has a sensor outside the International Sp…”

“Residents throughout my constituency welcome the improvements in workers’ rights, but parents are greatly concerned about the impact of the growing gap in attainment in Scottish schools between the richest and the poorest, and what it means for their children’s ability to find their first jobs. This week I have been in…”

“2. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to implement the policies in the make work pay plan in Scotland.”

“The hon. Member is talking with great understanding about the schools in his constituency, including state and independent, which is fantastic to hear. But we have heard in this debate about full state schools in England, about overloaded schools and underfunded schools. He will acknowledge that funding had to be found…”

“I have independent schools in my constituency, and the challenges we face with this policy are real, but the numbers people are citing make it difficult to talk about those challenges. People have said that tens of thousands of students are going to move from the independent sector to the state sector, but I do not thi…”

“My goodness me. If this policy generates the £1.8 billion we heard about earlier—[Interruption.] It could generate more. If it generates £1.8 billion, it will benefit schools in Edinburgh—of course it will. The hon. Lady made reference to school roll analysis, and stressed that it was conducted before the policy was in…”

“The massive rise in tuition fees came later. Hon. Members know exactly what I am talking about. [Interruption.] Can I speak, please? Nobody here is questioning the motives of parents—every single parent who sends their children to an independent school wants the best for their children—but what we are questioning is, i…”

“I find it really interesting that Conservative and Liberal Democrat Members are talking about how wrong it is to place VAT on school fees, even though they thought nothing about introducing university fees, which place a huge cost on education, particularly for people from poorer backgrounds.”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for inviting my intervention. What I will say is that more than half of voters in Edinburgh voted for the policy. Does he think that they were wrong?”