Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 20 Rhagfyr 1973.
Gerald Kaufman
, Manchester Ardwick
12:00,
20 Rhagfyr 1973
I went a good deal of the way with the hon. Member for Northants, South (Mr. Arthur Jones), but I fear that I cannot join him in his final remarks. I differ profoundly with him on that matter.
Those of us who have known the devotion of the Minister for Local Government and Development to local government have very great sympathy with him in the predicament in which he has been placed by the Cabinet. We know that Ministers in spending Departments like to protect their own Departments. Unfortunately, the right hon. Gentleman's Department is carrying one of the most serious and severe burdens of the present economic crisis. We know that it is not his doing, but at the same time I join my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Small Heath (Mr. Denis Howell) in condemning utterly the approach of the Chancellor of the exchequer towards local government and what it means to people who live in our great cities.
My hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Gorton (Mr. Marks) and I represent some of the most stricken areas in one of the greatest cities of the country, and in the orders and in what is to come there is naught for the comfort of the city of Manchester and naught, I fear, for the comfort of the other great cities of the country.
Six months ago we had a parliamentary By-election in Manchester. The Home Secretary paid us a brief visit. He visited part of the Constituency of Manchester, Exchange and condemned what he saw. He expressed horror at the human jungles which he briefly surveyed. He was then appointed by the Prime Minister to deal with deprived urban areas, and I fear that the rate support grants which are being provided by the Government, let alone the prospect which the Chancellor has given us in two deplorable speeches this week, will do nothing to help the Home Secretary in assisting the areas such as my hon. Friend the Member for Gorton and I represent. Already the only discernible effect of the Home Secretary's appointment has been his veto of a much-needed youth centre in my constituency.
I fear that, with the Chancellor's announcement, unless the greatest struggle is made by local authorities, the present Government will preside—I do not use these words lightly—over the murder of our great cities.
The new local authorities which will take office next spring, for which provision is made in one of the orders, have been given a totally impossible task by the Government. They are attempting to set up, with whatever criticisms we may make of the way they are doing it, machinery for the regeneration of our great cities. Instead, however, the cuts announced by the Government this week may mean the downfall of organised life in those cities.
So much is needed to keep the life of our cities going in a satisfactory way; so much is needed to put right what is seriously wrong with the life of our great cities; and so much money, organisation and work are needed to remedy the dereliction in constituencies such as mine. So much work and organisation are needed to ensure that new developments going on in our great cities are not only constructive but operate in human terms. So much organisation and money are needed to improve the environment of those areas of our great cities which are not being torn down and rebuilt. This is one of the most urgent problems of all in my constituency.
I have told the House on a number of occasions in debates such as this that my constituency contains some of the most deprived areas in this country. The degree of poverty in parts of my constituency can be measured by the census returns that hon. Members have received for their constituencies this week by taking three simple levels of affluence in an area. The national average of motor car ownership is 51 per cent. In my constituency it is 25 per cent.—less than half the national average. In the country as a whole, only 17 per cent. of homes—houses, flats and so on—do not have exclusive use of all the basic amenities: hot water, bath, and inside water closet. In my constituency 41 per cent. of households do not have these basic amenities.
That is a measure of the poverty in my constituency that the money provided by the Government through the rate support grant should do something to pm right. In the country as a whole, only 11 per cent. of homes do not have an inside water closet. In my constituency, 27 per cent. of homes are in this unfortunate situation.
The chancellor of the exchequer is the government's chief financial minister and as such is responsible for raising government revenue through taxation or borrowing and for controlling overall government spending.
The chancellor's plans for the economy are delivered to the House of Commons every year in the Budget speech.
The chancellor is the most senior figure at the Treasury, even though the prime minister holds an additional title of 'First Lord of the Treasury'. He normally resides at Number 11 Downing Street.
The Chancellor - also known as "Chancellor of the Exchequer" is responsible as a Minister for the treasury, and for the country's economy. For Example, the Chancellor set taxes and tax rates. The Chancellor is the only MP allowed to drink Alcohol in the House of Commons; s/he is permitted an alcoholic drink while delivering the budget.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
A by-election occurs when a seat in the House of Commons becomes vacant during the lifetime of a Parliament (i.e. between general elections) because the sitting MP dies, resigns, is elevated to the peerage, or becomes ineligible to sit for some other reason. If a vacancy occurs when the House is in session, the Chief Whip of the Party that formerly held the seat moves a Motion for a new writ. This leads to the by-election taking place. Prior notice does not have to be given in the Order Paper of the House. There is no time limit in which a new writ has to be issued, although by convention it is usually done within three months of a seat becoming vacant. There have been times when seats have remained empty for more than six months before a by-election was called. The sitting party will obviously choose a time when they feel confident of success. Seats are often left vacant towards the end of a Parliament to be filled at the General Election though this is not always the case and by-elections have sometimes occurred just before the dissolution of Parliament. While a vacancy exists a member of the same party in a neighbouring constituency handles constituency matters. When the new Member is elected in the by-election, all outstanding matters are handed back. Further information can be obtained from factsheet M7 at the UK Parliament site.
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
