Speeches by Crichton.

“Marzia, getting on to the grid is a nightmare for everyone. One big thing we have heard about is this siloed thinking there is about transmission and generation, which I know works within grid providers and within Ofgem as well. Is this siloed thinking a hurdle to change? We hear examples. Like I said before, everyone …”

“Ministers.”

“Thank you, Minister, and thank you, Emma, for coming in. Thank you, too, for your warm words of support on community energy. I do not remain to be convinced on the benefits of community ownership of energy. You have to go beyond warm words, because cleaning out the grid queue sounds great, but it did not help one commu…”

“Marzia, getting on to the grid is a nightmare for everyone. One big thing we have heard about is this siloed thinking there is about transmission and generation, which I know works within grid providers and within Ofgem as well. Is this siloed thinking a hurdle to change? We hear examples. Like I said before, everyone …”

“What do the Government need to do to get community energy on to the grid?”

“Just to reinforce that point, Marzia, 5 MW strikes me as deeply unambitious in terms of community energy. I come from a place where we have 23 MW already. One turbine is 5 MW. Thank you all for coming in. I have had Ofgem, GB Energy, the network suppliers, the community energy companies and the Government all in one ro…”

“I wanted to pick up on what Melanie was saying there, Helen, about the support that GB Energy will offer. What Melanie alluded to there was that communities run out of steam. They are voluntary. They are not experts, professionals, lawyers or logisticians. When we had Jürgen Maier in quite a while ago, I remember him s…”

“Some communities have vast expertise in this area and you could just plug it into another community if you wanted.”

“I thank the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) and the Backbench Business Committee for bringing this important debate to the Chamber. I pay tribute to all those who have cast a net, hauled a creel or pulled on a mussel rope to sustain us from the seas. We have been fishing the waters around our …”

“The right hon. Gentleman speaks about the fishing industry being heard. I hear reports of the SNP saying that Shetland would be listened to if it had a seat at the SNP table. I have a message for Shetland: we in the Western Isles have an SNP MSP, and we have not been listened to for 18 years.”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way and politely decline his offer to stand for the Scottish Parliament, because Na h-Eileanan an Iar has an excellent candidate in Donald MacKinnon. Next May he will wipe out the SNP and give us a real voice for the islands, which have not been listened to in 18 years. We have muc…”

“Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that it is a matter of considerable regret that the Scottish Government asked for the fishing and coastal growth fund to be devolved without first agreeing the mechanism outside the Barnett formula that would reflect the fact that Scotland has a larger share of the fishing industry?”

“4. What support her Department is providing for minority language broadcasting.”

“Welsh does very well out of broadcasting, but I am glad that the Western Isles are well represented on the airwaves just now. The stand-out star of this season’s “The Traitors” is Stephen Libby from the Isle of Lewis—I think he is going to win it this weekend. I am glad that Gaelic has its place in the Government’s Gre…”

“Yesterday, with Highlands and Islands airports at the centre of international events, there was no Scottish news programming on STV—the ITV channel in Scotland—because journalists were on the picket line in Aberdeen and Glasgow. Their strike centres on STV’s plans to cut the cherished northern edition of news output—fo…”

“It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Ms Furniss—apologies for not informing you of my intention to speak. I congratulate the hon. Member for North Devon (Ian Roome) on securing this important debate on an issue that affects lots of rural seats, including my own in Na h-Eileanan an Iar. The 5p a litre discount…”

“I thank the Secretary of State for his statement, and pay tribute to the role of the Royal Navy and RAF personnel in taking out this rogue tanker flying under the flag of a rogue nation. The Bella 1 was taken just a few hundred miles out into the Atlantic, which is too close for comfort for those of us who come from th…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for making that point. I also echo the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Glenrothes and Mid Fife (Richard Baker) about the £100 million spent in Scotland and elsewhere to make sure not just that all voices from across all parts of the UK are heard and seen on the BBC, but that the produ…”

“It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Harris. I congratulate the right hon. Member for Maldon (Sir John Whittingdale) on securing this important debate, and thank him for his support for broadcasting in minority languages and for making programmes that would otherwise not be made. It was satisfying to s…”

“When it comes to creating clean jobs and local wealth, there is no better example than the community-owned wind farm sector in my Na h-Eileanan an Iar constituency. I welcome what the Government have done to clean up the grid connection queue, but the community-owned wind farm sector in my constituency is still stalled…”