Kirsten Oswald: ...and agreements. That is on top of the fact that UK family reunion rules are already among the most restrictive in Europe. The Dubs scheme for refugee children was prematurely closed. Brexit—that elephant in the room that neither the Conservative Government nor the Labour Opposition want to talk about—means that Dublin family reunion applications are no longer possible. My constituents...
Monica Lennon: ...of us who are in political parties will understand it when I say that the selection process can be the most brutal experience. As parties, we might not want to talk about that, but it is often the elephant in the room. We should support people once they get elected, but the selection process can be the most brutal part of the process, and that can put people off. Does the minister...
James Sunderland: ...equipped to do the job with which they are tasked. Yes, we need more of everything—quantity has a quality of its own—but our ships, submarines and aircraft are good, supportable and modern. The elephant in the room is the land domain. My instinct, therefore, is that the CRAF is probably flashing red for land capability. Indeed, when we discuss defence in the House, operational...
Alan Whitehead: ...keep up with the inefficiency of the home in question, particularly in very large homes. Therefore, the heat pump is slaving away all hours of the day and night but never quite gets to the required room temperature. One solution would be to retrofit all UK properties in such a way as to make them all very energy efficient. Therefore, heat pumps would pretty much work anywhere, but that is...
Peter Aldous: ...business rates system that takes on board some of the amendments I have put forward. A fully reformed system will mean that businesses will know where they stand, and business rates will not be the elephant in the room. People will be able to invest in, build on and expand their businesses with a degree of confidence, leading to increased profits. What that will do—joy to the...
Lord Holmes of Richmond: ...asked to give of their time for free for months? That cannot be right; it cannot be part of the society and economy that we want to build and be part of in this country. Finally, the algorithmic elephant that is all too often in the room in so many of our discussions: AI, machine learning, LLM—whatever we choose to call it—is having a profound effect already, not least on work and...
Mairi Gougeon: I am just closing. I am afraid that, however much the Opposition tries to ignore the elephant in the room, securing a sustainable food supply for Scotland will always be more challenging outside the EU than it was in it. This is a complex issue because we are part of a complex food system and we have to try to balance very different considerations to meet short-term shocks as well as the...
Richard Burgon: ...has focused on driving down workers’ real wages. In the words of the Bank of England’s chief economist, people should just “accept that they’re worse off”. That approach has ignored the elephant in the room—the role that corporations are now playing in driving up inflation through price hikes designed to boost their profits. There is mounting evidence that such corporate...
Ian Murray: ...at the rate it did under the last Labour Government, we would have about £40 billion more to spend our public services and tackling the cost of living, without raising a single tax. That is the elephant in the room for the Conservatives. [Interruption.] They chunter from the Government Benches without any contrition for the fact that they crashed the economy and everyone is paying the...
Patrick Grady: ...is experiencing catastrophic staff shortages. Is Lord Heseltine not right when he says that Brexit has been “a classic mistake, a terrible” horrible miscalculation, and the “elephant in the room of our present economic difficulties”?
David Lammy: ...and the deputy ambassador reportedly out of the country when fighting broke out? Why are Hercules aircraft, which have been used in two airlifts in two years, still set to be scrapped? And the elephant in the room: which lessons of the Afghan evacuation have been learned and properly implemented? The immediate priority of the British Government is rightly to ensure that as many UK...
Stewart Hosie: ...that have driven the cost of living crisis are not there by chance. They are not all a consequence of external shocks, and they are not all a result of covid or of Ukraine. The inflationary elephant in the room is Brexit. The London School of Economics has said that “by the end of 2021, Brexit had already cost UK households a total of £5.8 billion in higher food bills”. Last year, as...
Layla Moran: ...at Calais, thanks to the Government’s red tape and not having the right paperwork. The Government’s fingers are in their ears. Despite all the extraordinary damage, this issue has become the elephant in the room of British politics. They do not want to talk about it. That is why a public inquiry is important. No one here is trying to prosecute the arguments of the past. We are where...
Douglas Chapman: ...a force for positive general happiness around this Chamber, but there is a great black cloud of gloom and doom overhanging the Bill. It relates to Brexit: the unwelcome guest at the wedding, the elephant in the room, the truth that dare not be spoken by its instigators. Brexit has brought us headlines such as “Economy in decline”, “No-growth Britain”, “Bottom of the class at the...
Lord Morrow: ...whether the Stormont brake could be made to work. I will come to their critiques presently. In the rush to expose the practical problems associated with pulling the brake, people forgot the elephant in the room: as I pointed out on 1 March, even if the Stormont brake worked perfectly, far from eliminating the democratic deficit, the regulations seek to cement in that deficit and the...
Lucy Powell: ...been promised for years? Where is the semiconductor strategy? Where is the media Bill to protect and promote British broadcasters in the streaming age? Where is the commitment on Horizon? It is the elephant in the room. The ongoing uncertainty is costing collaboration opportunities, research projects and jobs across the country. While the Budget featured at least nods in the direction of...
Aaron Bell: ...support, builds on the Government’s excellent track record on animal welfare. I pay tribute to the Minister and look forward to her response. Let me address one issue—I was going to call it the elephant in the room, but that is a terrible, terrible joke. We cannot enforce our laws in other countries. I should make it clear that this Bill will not criminalise Brits abroad who might take...
Lord Bird: ...looking at the world in an arsy-versy way? “Arsy-versy” is a polite printing term for when you print something upside down. The Government are arsy-versy because they do not look at the glaring elephant in the room—in fact, I would say it is more than just an elephant; it is an elephant along with its mum, dad and children—and that is poverty. Here is the thing about poverty. The...
Chris Stephens: ....5% pay rise is affordable under current Treasury allocation; as the IFS said, that is a political choice. The TUC has said that the lack of support for public services and for public pay is the “elephant in the room”. The Budget goes nowhere near a high-wage, high-skills economy. With strikes all over the country, it is striking that the Budget said nothing about them. Public...
Russell Findlay: ...the people of Scotland share that risk appetite? I do not think that they do and I do not think that they should. That brings me on to the issue of cost, which was described by one witness as “an elephant in the room”.—[ Official Report , Criminal Justice Committee , 14 December 2022; c 6.] Stretched criminal justice social workers will be burdened with even more work. The bill’s...
