"My hon. Friend speaks with great authority, and he is absolutely right. Many farmers in Somerset, Dorset and across the south-west and the United Kingdom have had a difficult couple of years with the price of milk, beef and pork, and that has led to real challenges for them. This …..." James Heappey - View Speech
"I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. The issue has caused significant distress. When I reflect on some of the correspondence I have had from farmers in Somerset, I find that their anger subsides very quickly to real worry and concern for their livelihood and those of their families and …..." James Heappey - View Speech
"I very much agree with my hon. Friend. The term “vast majority” is rather loose, and we will come to that in a second.
There are three key issues in the debate. First, what is the current state of play? How many payments have been made as of today? How …..." James Heappey - View Speech
"I very much agree with my hon. Friend’s point. It does seem remiss. I understand why the Government do things in that way—in my last job in the Army I had a staff appointment at the Ministry of Defence when the Scottish referendum was announced, and we were told in …..." James Heappey - View Speech
"I suspect that the Minister misspoke, but I invite him to clarify what he said. He said that we are working today on payments to be made by the end of March. Does he mean the end of the month?..." James Heappey - View Speech
"I thank all hon. Members who have spoken in today’s debate and all those who made themselves available to brief us so that it could be so well informed. I would like to pick up a couple of points. I am very grateful to the Minister for attending. He is …..." James Heappey - View Speech
"My time is slipping by quickly, but I believe that that is an active decision to save. An automatic one, because people are not in control of when their system crashes or their broadband drops out, might be a worthwhile improvement.
"The motion conflates two hugely important issues, both of which are worthy of debate in their own right. I will speak initially about flooding and if time allows I will move on to climate change.
Somerset is affected by both elements. We have very recent and painful experience of flooding, …..." James Heappey - View Speech
The dastardly EU has moved the goalposts on bathing water quality, and this morning we have found out that Burnham-on-Sea in my constituency has fallen short of the new standards. This will be of great concern to many in my constituency, particularly those involved in tourism. …..." James Heappey - View Speech
"I thank the Minister and his predecessor for all their work on this issue. The regulations are hotly anticipated in Somerset, where they will bring not only insurance for many households, but real peace of mind. For two winters since the last major flooding event in the county, people have …..." James Heappey - View Speech