Speeches by Hobhouse.

“Would you say we are already so far down the road as businesses and communities that swinging back now would almost be—”

“Would you say we are already so far down the road as businesses and communities that swinging back now would almost be—”

“I probably also still call myself a zealot. I know you are not, but I am. “Net-zero policies…are increasingly viewed as unaffordable, ineffective, or politically toxic”—not my words, but those of the Tony Blair Institute. Does the breakdown of what we are now calling the political consensus—we can even question whether…”

“The bus grant announced for the west was portrayed by the Government as a win, but in reality it was a real-terms cut. The three-year bus grant settlement announced by the Labour mayor last month is down 35% on the previous three-year allocation, and will result in real-terms cuts. How can the Government call that a wi…”

“According to Government figures, output from new solar projects costs around £41 per megawatt-hour compared with roughly £140 per megawatt-hour for the lifespan costs of new gas power. I know the Secretary of State agrees with me and RenewableUK that clean energy remains the energy with the lowest cost, but how do we e…”

“Happy new year, Mr Speaker. Bath Welcomes Refugees has supported more than 800 refugees to integrate and access vital services such as housing—indeed, Bath is another place where Ukrainian refugees have received a very warm welcome. The Public and Commercial Services Union report “Welcoming Growth” highlights the impor…”

“I was a secondary school language teacher before I came to this place, and I had to deliver lessons on relationships. I have also raised two women and two men, so I was not exactly uncomfortable around young people, but I felt uncomfortable teaching those lessons, and it seems that I am not alone. About half of seconda…”

“This last debate of the year is an opportunity to reflect on and celebrate some of the most valued aspects of our constituencies. I can mention only a few because of the time limit. VOICES has been delivering independent, trauma-informed domestic abuse services in Bath for more than a decade, and it currently supports …”

“Merry Christmas, Mr Speaker. May I thank you for signing the Christmas card of my young constituent, who was the winner of our Christmas card competition? When I gave it back to her, she was thrilled. I had the pleasure of visiting the Lush store in Bath. Lush has been a leading advocate for ending animal testing, cham…”

“Does the Minister acknowledge the unbalanced literature that is still taught in schools, the majority of which is written by men as opposed to women?”

“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Efford. What a wonderful debate to bring to this Chamber, on which I congratulate the hon. Member for Basingstoke (Luke Murphy). Jane Austen: what a legend, what a genius! She is still inspiring us today, and what an opportunity we have to hear from her directly, as s…”

“I have a very short follow-up question. Should that be off-grid? Should it be directly attached to a high-energy industrial process and the energy should not even touch the grid? Then we would not have all this constrained payment stuff.”

“Whenever there is a new technology, everybody can come forward and say, “I have this project”. How do the Government assess what is the most cost-effective or what will ultimately cost billpayers the least money? That is a problem, is it not? How much should the Government put their eggs into one basket? When they see …”

“You are still talking about a baseload not covering intermittency. The baseload is exactly the reason that many sources of renewable energy cannot be used because they get turned off rather than being used. We cannot turn off nuclear. I hear that new nuclear can be turned on and off again. Is that correct?”

“How does nuclear deal with the intermittency of renewables? That is one of our biggest questions, is it not? People are coming in with storage, batteries and all the rest of it.”

“We are moving on to AMRs, or advanced modular reactors. Maybe it is helpful to remind ourselves of what is what. When we talk about small modular reactors, I have heard that they are actually not that small. They are pretty big. What about AMRs? I think it was mentioned by you, Sam, that the backbone of the British net…”

“One in three rape trials end up being postponed, in some cases more than six times, and 73% of rape survivors say that police treatment worsened their mental health during the process. What improvements will be made in how the police treat rape survivors?”

“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Turner. I congratulate the hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Andrew Lewin) on securing this debate. Cricket is not played much in Germany, so I had to come a long way when I married my cricket-loving husband who spent most of his summer weekends either playing or liste…”

“The politically motivated conviction of Jimmy Lai is yet another chilling sign of the breakdown of human rights and freedom of speech in Hong Kong. The Foreign Secretary will know that I was refused entry into Hong Kong to visit our son and his young family, and I never got any explanation why. Where does this recent d…”

“For many, Christmas is the season of joy and connection. But for victims of domestic abuse, it can be the most dangerous time of the year. Reports of domestic violence typically rise by around 20% over the festive period. How is the Department working with employers to ensure that staff are proactively informed about d…”