Extract from Lords Private Notice Question on Heathrow Airport
Expansion Baroness Randerson (LD) [V]: My Lords, Heathrow is highly
dependent on business passengers. Now that we have all discovered
Zoom industry analysts recognise that the pattern of demand will be
different in future, and business demand will be unlikely to return
as strongly. Is it not time to accept that the third runway is an
outdated, 20th-century concept? Will the Government agree that
plans for UK aviation need a total...Request free trial
Extract from Lords
Private Notice Question on Heathrow Airport Expansion
(LD) [V]: My Lords, Heathrow is highly
dependent on business passengers. Now that we have all
discovered Zoom industry analysts recognise
that the pattern of demand will be different in future, and
business demand will be unlikely to return as strongly. Is it not
time to accept that the third runway is an outdated, 20th-century
concept? Will the Government agree that plans for UK aviation need
a total review, with climate change at the centre and emphasis not
on growth in the south-east but on regeneration in the
north?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Transport ()
(Con): My Lords, I am old enough to remember
when Skype was launched and everyone thought that
that would have a fundamental impact on the way in which we do
business. It is the case that aviation as a whole needs to consider
what demand will look like in the future. As all noble Lords know,
it is a private sector supported by airports that are also largely
in the private sector. We will work closely with it to make sure
that we can take advantage of the demand that exists in the places
that it wants it...
Extract from
Tributes to Lords staff in 2020
(Lab):...We leave this year with a
very different world to that which we came into at the beginning of
the year. One of the most depressing and heartbreaking terms I have
heard is when we talk about “the new normal”, as if we somehow
accept the way things are at the moment. These things are forced on
us. They are not the way we want to work and operate but the way we
have to, and we look forward to when we are able to be here
physically, in person, with colleagues, and work in the normal
way—which is, I think, perhaps slightly quicker than the way we
operate today. We all recall the days when Zoom was a summer ice lolly and
Teams referred to the football teams that we
support.
Extracts from
Commons pre-recess debate
(Strangford) (DUP):...Looking back, I
think of those precious to me who have been lost through
coronavirus and cancer this year, those who have been taken in
accidents and those who felt that they had no option other than to
end their lives. It has been a difficult time for so many and it is
easy to feel downhearted, but I have also seen a community pulling
together, with people helping neighbours, and perhaps speaking to
neighbours they had not spoken to before or had not spoken to for a
long time. We have seen glimmers of a silver lining with
family Zoom chats to keep connected,
grandparents learning how to FaceTime—I am one of
them, at long last, my wife says—and an upsurge in baking; my
mother is a fantastic baker and cook and we have been sustained by
her good foodstuffs over the last period. It reminds me of God’s
promise that what the enemy means for evil, God brings good out of
it...
(Southend West) (Con):...I have had a number of
ambassadorial meetings by Zoom this year, and I praise the
work of the ambassadors to the Philippines and the Maldives, which
is in a far better place now...
Extract from
Westminster Hall debate on UK Hydrogen Economy
The Minister for Business, Energy and Clean Growth
():...My hon. Friend the Member for Rother Valley
and the hon. Member for City of Chester () have done a great job in this debate of highlighting
the strengths of the HyNet industrial cluster. Everyone has said,
“Let there not be a beauty contest,” yet they have been very good
at presenting the particular attractions of their areas. They have
done a very good job on that. I am on the record as having pledged
to visit HyNet, hopefully in the next few months. I have spoken to
representatives of the cluster on Zoom and in various other forums,
and they are doing a fantastic job in pushing this
agenda...
|
