"It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship for the first time, Mr Bone. I congratulate the hon. Member for Winchester (Steve Brine) on securing this timely debate.
Like other hon. Members who have spoken, I have constituents who have been affected by flooding. There is a sizeable community …..." Chris Williamson - View Speech
"I am grateful for the opportunity to correct my earlier mistake. I meant to read out recommendation 39, which states:
“The Government should urgently put in place a fully funded national capability for flood rescue with Fire and Rescue Authorities playing a leading role, underpinned as necessary by a statutory …..." Chris Williamson - View Speech
"I will give way in a moment. According to a document published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, “Agriculture in the United Kingdom”:
“The number of commercial agricultural holdings in the UK has remained stable between 2010 and 2013 at 222 thousand”.
"If the hon. Gentleman will bear with me, I will come on to that and explain why I am referring to the NFU. Despite public, parliamentary and scientific opinion, the NFU is clearly the only interest group to think that the badger cull is a good idea. For the life …..." Chris Williamson - View Speech
"The hon. Lady is absolutely right about that point, and I will be coming on to it.
As a consequence of not reaching the target of 5,000 badgers, the Government are likely to have made matters considerably worse because of perturbation, about which they were warned. DEFRA has not only …..." Chris Williamson - View Speech
"My hon. Friend is absolutely correct in his summary of the position. Of course bovine TB is a dreadful illness, but the way in which the Government have gone about tackling it is precisely the wrong thing to do and is likely to be making matters worse. I do not …..." Chris Williamson - View Speech
"I am grateful to the hon. Lady for that intervention. It is important that there is independent assessment of the culls, as there is a real fear of a lack of trust if there is no independent assessment of their effectiveness. We cannot leave it to the Government to determine …..." Chris Williamson - View Speech
"I do not think the cull should have started in the first place, because of the wealth of scientific opinion that I have already outlined. I will come on to the alternative way forward.
I ask the Minister, where is the transparency? The Chancellor of the Exchequer has been talking …..." Chris Williamson - View Speech