Mr Timothy Renton: I think that it is right to say that the matter of the 49s is up for judicial review at the moment and therefore being actively considered. There clearly seems to be some confusion, some overlap, between gaming and betting law.
Mr Timothy Renton: I am delighted to have won the Speaker's lottery and to have secured the debate today on the national lottery. It will be the last Adjournment debate that I have in the House, and I am particularly pleased to have won it, because today is the birthday of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for National Heritage, who has done so much to advance the cause of the national lottery. It...
Mr Timothy Renton: I intend to address that specific point, because it is one area in relation to the grant-giving bodies that worries me, as it does the hon. Gentleman. There is no firm, foolproof solution to the dangers, but if I may offer advice to those who are on the Front Bench after the election, when I shall have left the House, I would strongly counsel my right hon. Friend, who I very much hope will...
Mr Timothy Renton: I whole-heartedly agree with the decision to present the Bill in this Session. Many building societies such as the Alliance and Leicester and the Halifax are about to become plcs and it is good that societies should know the precise form for doing that. The Bill makes more evident the changes in the building society world.
Mr Timothy Renton: Perhaps my hon. Friend can inform my ignorance. She is rightly talking about the importance of members in societies that continue to be mutual. What rights or possibilities have those members if, given the examples of the Alliance and Leicester and the Halifax, they would prefer their societies to convert into plcs so as to have the sort of windfall that members of the Halifax and the...
Mr Timothy Renton: rose—
Mr Timothy Renton: Is the right hon. Gentleman not in danger of adding to the contempt of Parliament to which he refers by his constant evasion, and that of the members of his shadow Cabinet, of the West Lothian question? I remind him that the question was first asked by the hon. Member for Linlithgow (Mr. Dalyell) 20 years ago. The hon. Gentleman sought an answer from the Labour party then at the same time as...
Mr Timothy Renton: Will the Foreign Secretary be discussing the steps that Britain intends to take after the handover to China to discharge its responsibilities under the 1984 joint agreement, particularly once the joint liaison group has ceased to exist in 2000? Is there not a case for establishing a special parliamentary committee to keep in touch with the high level of autonomy that Hong Kong is promised...
Mr Timothy Renton: May I congratulate the Prime Minister on the stance that he took in the difficult circumstances at the summit? Following Dublin, does he agree that, whatever the contents of a stability pact, without general and well-informed consent to joining economic and monetary union, a single currency may well prove fragile? On that basis, would he consider asking the Bank of England, which last week...
Mr Timothy Renton: Has my right hon. Friend had time today to read the excellent article, which is extremely positive about our trade with Europe, on page 6 of The Sun, written by my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer? Its headline reads: "Britain can be Champs of Europe like Man United!" Our local club in Sussex, the Seagulls—Brighton and Hove Albion—although conveniently placed...
Mr Timothy Renton: I also wish to congratulate my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer on his robust speech this afternoon, which went into the details of the advantages and real disadvantages of joining economic and monetary union. I am one of those who feel that it would, at this early stage, be totally crazy to throw away our option to participate in forming the terms of economic...
Mr Timothy Renton: I have no time to give way. Like my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr. Hurd), I have concerns about the single currency, but I feel strongly about the subject because I look back in history. I remember well that, twice at the beginning of my political life, under Macmillan, we made approaches to join the single market, some seven or eight years after it had been founded, and we...
Mr Timothy Renton: I congratulate my right hon. and learned Friend on his lucid statement. Is not the real reason for the passion that has led to this mini-debate the fact that hon. Members on both sides of the House are beginning to learn that, whether or not we are in EMU, we shall have to learn to live with it, and it is that knowledge that is making a number of hon. Members wish to have an urgent debate on...
Mr Timothy Renton: The hon. Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney (Mr. Rowlands) rightly asked how we, in the House of Commons, can influence that powerful country, China, to which sovereignty over Hong Kong will return in only eight months' time. Shortly before today's debate, I was on a radio broadcast with Christine Loh, one of the very well-known, very strong-minded members of the Legislative Council...
Mr Timothy Renton: I see that the hon. Gentleman, who is an expert on this subject, is trying to catch my eye.
Mr Timothy Renton: The hon. Gentleman anticipates something that I proposed to say in three or four minutes. I remember the South China Morning Post well. When I was the Minister responsible, I came from Beijing to Hong Kong, via Guangzhou. I remember the political secretary bringing me a copy of that day's South China Morning Post, the banner headline of which stated: Renton to run the gauntlet in Hong Kong...
Mr Timothy Renton: I thank my right hon. and learned Friend for giving way again. I wish to ask about a very important subject: the other so-called election—the election of the chief executive. The choice of chief executive will be extremely important to the people of Hong Kong, and the Chinese have made a great deal of fuss about the fact that he or she will be elected rather than chosen by a Government in...
Mr Timothy Renton: My hon. Friend the Minister has just said that the reconstruction of the World Service is a matter for the BBC governors. Surely the essential difference is that the World Service is funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, whereas the rest of the BBC is financed by the licence fee. Is my hon. Friend aware there is very great worry on both sides of the House about how the separate ethos...
Mr Timothy Renton: I congratulate my right hon. Friend on both the wisdom and the symbolism of what he has announced today. After we have listened to some of the comments of Labour Back Benchers who have ridiculed this step, is it not worth reminding the House that the stone was forcibly removed from the abbey by Scottish nationalists on Christmas morning 1950? Surely that shows the forceful power that is...
Mr Timothy Renton: I should like to press my right hon. Friend for one more debate before the recess. Has he seen early-day motion 953? [That this House deplores the steep decline in serious reporting and analysis of politics and current affairs in the United Kingdom; notes that this decline has gathered pace in recent times, with increasing emphasis on personalities rather than policies, and on trivia rather...
