Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alister Jack and Angus Brendan MacNeil

Wednesday 13th September 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jack]

I agree with my hon. Friend, and I could not have put it better myself.

[Angus Brendan MacNeil (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) (Ind)]

Is the truth of the Union not that while we see independent Norway and independent Ireland in budget surplus—independent Ireland with a surplus this year of €10 billion, rising to €23 billion in the next three years—the Scottish Government cannot build small hospitals on small Scottish islands? Is the answer not for Scotland to remove the Westminster handcuffs and to get the independence and budget surpluses of Norway and Ireland, so that we can move forward and move away from the Brexit of the Tories and the Labour party?

[Mr Jack]

They always say independence will sort the problems. Scotland is not building hospitals on the islands because the Scottish Government are squandering the most generous settlement they have had since devolution began.

Scottish Referendum Legislation: Supreme Court Decision

Debate between Alister Jack and Angus Brendan MacNeil

Wednesday 23rd November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jack]

The Scotland Office has done no private polling. The polling that I referred to is the public opinion polling that we can all read.

[Angus Brendan MacNeil (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) (SNP)]

Scotland joining the Union predates the Scotland Act 1998 and it was the 1998 Act that the Supreme Court judged on today. The 1998 Act will not and cannot stop Scotland being an independent country. I am sure that the Secretary of State believes in the right of independence for Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Ukraine, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia and many others, so does he believe the same for Scotland? If Scotland votes for independence at an election ballot box, will he respect the democracy of that event?

[Mr Jack]

As I keep pointing out to SNP Members, less than a third of Scots voted for the SNP at the ballot box.

Scottish Independence and the Scottish Economy

Debate between Alister Jack and Angus Brendan MacNeil

Wednesday 2nd November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jack]

That simply is not democracy, because the hon. Member is not respecting the result of the referendum in 2014. As we heard from the right hon. Member for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, there was confusion and, in that referendum, the Scottish National party was proposing that Scotland leave the EU. We have just heard a whole speech on how desperate the SNP is to get back into the EU, yet in 2014 the proposal made was that Scotland would leave—

[Angus Brendan MacNeil]

On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. Is it in order to suspend proceedings so that the Secretary of State can have a tutorial on how elections and ballot boxes work and how an x is put on a piece of paper?

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)]

I am sure that the hon. Member’s leader would not be delighted if I were to suspend proceedings for any reason whatsoever.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Jack]

I make no apology for the fact that I have always been pro low taxes. That remains my position today.

For all that the motion for today’s debate purports to focus on the economy, we should be clear that it is, in reality, about allowing the SNP to talk about the one issue that matters to it: separation and seeking to break up the UK. This is simply not the time to be talking about another independence referendum. We share these islands, and we share a rich, shared history.

[Angus Brendan MacNeil]

Will the Secretary of State give way?

[Mr Jack]

It is like musical chairs, Mr Deputy Speaker.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alister Jack and Angus Brendan MacNeil

Wednesday 12th February 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jack]

There is enormous capability not just with more offshore wind schemes, but with more hydro schemes. As I said earlier, we intend to create 27,000 more jobs through using that untapped capacity.

[Angus Brendan MacNeil (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) (SNP)]

Offshore wind and contracts for difference entry was cost-free to both the Government and the consumer as the strike price was below the typical wholesale price, but 240 MW of that remains stranded because Ofgem demands that the island of Lewis has at least 369 MW to build an interconnector cable. Another 180 MW could have been consented to, and that would have been cost-free, but they were not consented to due to Government caps. Can we have some joined-up thinking in the Government between the interconnector and the contracts for difference to ensure we are not billowing out fossil fuels when we could instead have 600 MW of wind being produced?