Mr Frederick Corfield: I trust that the right hon. Member for Blackburn (Mrs. Castle) will forgive me if I do not take up her point about tax credits, but I remind her that there is a good argument that many of our problems today go back to the person who introduced, and then withdrew, "In Place of Strife". Therefore, I do not think that she is in the best place to criticise my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of...
Mr Frederick Corfield: The hon. Gentleman referred to uncertificated teachers. I thought we were dealing with certificated teachers. They do not become better teachers by joining this body. Will the hon. Gentleman please tell us what terrible damage will befall us if we do not pass this Bill, in view of his dislike of retrospection?
Mr Frederick Corfield: Does the right hon. Gentleman really think, looking back over what is now nearly 2½ years, that his estimate was more accurate than mine? If so, he is living in cloud cuckoo land. Second, does he really think that, at that time, when there was no certainty at all that the RB211 could be carried on, it would have been sensible for any Minister—I do not know whether he would have done so; he...
Mr Frederick Corfield: I hope that the hon. Member for Derby, North (Mr. Whitehead) will forgive me if I do not follow his remarks at any great length. There are, however, one or two points he made which I would like to take up. The hon. Member made the point, although I do not know where he got his information from, that Sir Denning Pearson had gone to his right hon. Friend —this was before the hon. Member came...
Mr Frederick Corfield: Perhaps it is the best place to be. I stand by what I said, for this reason. I know the right hon. Gentleman will find it difficult to understand this, but that was an honest, personal assessment, for which I do not blame my advisers in any way, of what I saw to be the difficulties of launching that engine in a climate in which the DC10 was already ahead of the 1011. If the right hon....
Mr Frederick Corfield: That is the statement to which I am referring. I do not rat on my statement. It is on the record. I said it and I believed it. If the right hon. Gentleman and the hon. Gentleman were absolutely honest and were to study the TriStar 1011—which is still the principal market for this engine, although there are prospects of marine adaptations and so on—they would have to admit that there is no...
Mr Frederick Corfield: I am sorry that it should have fallen to my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment to defend the aberrations that apparently go on in the Chancellor of the Exchequer's bathroom. My friends in the water industry tell me that we are heading for a drought. If that cuts down my right hon. Friend's baths and, therefore, the bright ideas which occur while he is in...
Mr Frederick Corfield: I do not think that that follows at all. I was comparing the building societies with the banks, but I did not want to be taken literally to committing myself to five. There are now well over 100 building societies, and it seems to me that a reasonable reduction would very much strengthen the reserves of those which were left. It is, after all, a question of reserves on which we depend if we...
Mr Frederick Corfield: That is essential. I thank my hon. Friend for pointing it out. I was, indeed, coming to that point. But it is unfortunately a myth to believe that ultimately we pull down the price of houses. Finally, my right hon. and learned Friend must bear a share of the blame for the lack of land coming forward, because the time being taken to decide appeals is really scandalous. My right hon. and...
Mr Frederick Corfield: I share with other hon. Members a wholehearted welcome for the purpose of the clause and a cautious response to the means by which it meets that purpose. It is not good enough to say that we will leave this matter to the valuing profession. We cannot judge whether the clause will meet the problem adequately and without undue complexity until we know roughly what the valuation results will...
Mr Frederick Corfield: I beg to move, That the Clause be read a Second time. The purpose of the new clause is to meet the point ably put by my hon. Friend the Member for Scarborough and Whitby (Mr. Michael Shaw) in Committee as an amendment to Clause 49. My right hon. Friend then kindly promised that he would consider the point, and indeed he has told me privately that he will go further and is prepared to devise...
Mr Frederick Corfield: On the basis of that assurance I beg to ask leave to withdraw the motion.
Mr Frederick Corfield: Will the right hon. Gentleman elaborate on the factors about which he thinks there is secrecy, and where he thinks there should be more publicity? There is a distinction between technical factors and what, whether he likes it or not, are commercial factors.
Mr Frederick Corfield: I am glad my hon. Friend the Member for South Angus (Mr. Bruce-Gardyne) managed to clarify the emphasis of the right hon. Member for Bristol, South-East (Mr. Benn) on the Government's determination to continue their campaign for the sale of Concorde. In the interim until more orders are picked up, the Government's determination is a prerequisite. But we cannot emphasise too often,...
Mr Frederick Corfield: I very much doubt whether even the most powerful Select Committee of this House would have the competence to do exactly that. I can only say that I have the pleasure of the acquaintance of extremely clever people in this field and they have been remarkably unsuccessful, but I do not believe that they have been any less devoted to the concept of economy than people in this House.
Mr Frederick Corfield: Yes indeed, but I believe that we in this House are in danger of forgetting that under our constitution there is a distinction between the executive and the legislature, and hon. Members are members of the latter. For the right hon. Gentleman to draw a parallel, as he did, with a company in the private sector and say that we are not being allowed the information that the directors get is to...
Mr Frederick Corfield: The hon. Gentleman seems to be raising the question of defence interests being the only valid excuse for withholding information on his first point. He forgets that this is the first commercial project—I use the word deliberately—designed to sell aeroplanes to ordinary commercial operators wholly financed by Government money. This puts the Government in the driving seat during the selling...
Mr Frederick Corfield: I accept that. As my hon. Friend has pointed out, the Public Accounts Committee has already had a chance to look at the thing post hoc. The hands of any negotiator are tied if the negotiations are carried out in public. The hon. Member's party is fascinated by nationalisation. Is he really saying that every steel deal should be discussed in this House because it is public money, to the...
Mr Frederick Corfield: Does my hon. Friend agree that whatever else the Americans do, they do not have public sittings of congressional committees to go into such matters while negotiations are in progress and about matters crucial to the negotiations?
Mr Frederick Corfield: I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will accept that the only reason was that this was regarded as confidential for the reasons which my hon. Friend the Minister for Aerospace has given. Once one indicates the special terms available to certain airlines, one is pressed, and is almost unable to resist the pressure, to spread them to other airlines. The fact that this confidentiality was breached...
