"I pay tribute to my hon. Friend’s amazing contribution, and thank him for his tutelage. I wish him all the best in his retirement.
On the point about working-age women who will not get this benefit at the age when they expected to get their pension, many of those women, …..." Paul Sweeney - View Speech
"The Secretary of State mentions the extension to Scotland. However, journey times between Glasgow and Manchester will increase as a result of HS2. Will he ask the review to consider expediting an extension north to Glasgow from Manchester as a matter of urgency?..." Paul Sweeney - View Speech
"I thank my hon. Friend for giving way. I share her enthusiasm for this ambitious project. She talks about journey times. To achieve that modal shift, particularly between Scotland and London, we need to get rail journey times below three hours. Does she agree that that requires much more ambition …..." Paul Sweeney - View Speech
"My hon. Friend is making an excellent point about why we need to improve the governance and oversight of this project, to ensure that the maximum benefit is realised for the country. I am thinking of the supply chain benefits, particularly in my constituency, which was once a world leader …..." Paul Sweeney - View Speech
"The Secretary of State calls it an insurance policy, but I do not know what part of an insurance policy involves paying £33 million in an out-of-court settlement to a company because of his own incompetence. That is not really a viable and prudent form of insurance policy. Is not …..." Paul Sweeney - View Speech
"Well, the chair of that review has just said that the franchising system is not fit for purpose. In the light of that, does the Secretary of State not agree with Opposition Members that privatisation has been a litany of failure, that the fragmentation of the network has meant the …..." Paul Sweeney - View Speech
"Is it not correct that the franchise system is a fundamentally flawed business model? Over the past 10 years, we have seen £3.5 billion extracted in dividends—money creamed off our railways that could have been reinvested had we had a proper model of public ownership and democratic accountability in our …..." Paul Sweeney - View Speech
"Thank you, Ms Ryan. To compress the municipal transport system of the entire city of Glasgow into that time will be quite a challenge.
As a cautionary tale for some of those embarking on new devolution projects and city region planning, let me say that it is important to get …..." Paul Sweeney - View Speech
"Perhaps when the Secretary of State is finally fired for his incompetence over this issue, he might get the consolation prize of being invited on to Comic Relief’s special edition of “The Apprentice”, where we can see him on “Team Seaborne”, trying desperately to fill in the capacity that he …..." Paul Sweeney - View Speech