Mr Stanley Crowther: Will the Paymaster General understand a simple point? In areas such as mine, where even on the Government's manipulated figures, unemployment is running at 23 per cent., the public want not some new system of calculation, but a policy that creates real jobs. What is there in the right hon. and learned Gentleman's statement which suggests a change of policy which will get people back to work...
Mr Stanley Crowther: Following the ending of state aids to steel throughout the European Community, what steps will the Minister take to ensure that the British steel industry, in the public and private sectors, does not continue in its present disadvantageous position, because of the indirect subsidies to steel in other European countries?
Mr Stanley Crowther: The Minister is overlooking the fact that according to the table on page xxii the Government are already spending almost twice as much on tourism in London as in any other area listed in the chart.
Mr Stanley Crowther: I must take up the suggestion made by the Minister earlier and try to clarify the real meaning of paragraph 2(c) of the recommendations made in the first report of the Select Committee on Trade and Industry which has caused some dismay. As I mentioned earier, the word "of" repeated in the second line should be "in". I took that up on the day that the report was launched. I discussed it with...
Mr Stanley Crowther: rose—
Mr Stanley Crowther: I hope to bring the hon. Member for Ross, Cromarty and Skye (Mr. Kennedy) back to the point that he was making before he was interrupted. I wonder whether hon. Members properly understand the recommendation in the Select Committee report on this matter. When it was printed, I pointed out that there was a misprint — although nothing was done about it—in recommendation (2)(c), which states:...
Mr Stanley Crowther: No, it is not.
Mr Stanley Crowther: Further to that point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. It may be that I can be of some assistance. Hon. Members from Scotland and Wales have persuaded the Government to reject the Select Committee's recommendation which would have brought all of this expenditure under one Estimate. They cannot have it both ways.
Mr Stanley Crowther: I listened with a great deal of sympathy to the speech of the hon. Member for St. Ives (Mr. Harris). I should feel the same sympathy for any hon. Member whose constituency had been so badly let down by a Government of his own party. In due course we shall see which way he votes. I feel that he may have to vote against the Government, because there is not much likelihood of any positive...
Mr Stanley Crowther: I am sure that it is not a simple matter and I would not suggest that it is. However, I still think that the management took rather longer than it should have done. As has been said, it was an extremely difficult inquiry because of the virtual refusal of the Government —Ministers and civil servants—to give us any information. We could not even discover whether they had any information to...
Mr Stanley Crowther: My right hon. Friend must not overlook the fact that, although 15 papers were sent to Ministers by civil servants, the permanent secretary would not tell the Committee whether there was anything in them. I asked him more than once.
Mr Stanley Crowther: They may have been. Whether they were in invisible ink or not probably made little difference to the content. I did not ask the permanent secretary to tell the Committee what information was in the reports because of the confidentiality rule. I did not say, "We want to know what is in them." I said, "Will you simply tell us whether there was any information in them at all?" He replied, "Oh,...
Mr Stanley Crowther: I am following with great interest the points that my hon. Friend is making, and I agree about the desirability of going through the proper planning procedures with, if necessary, a public inquiry preceding an appeal to the Secretary of State. However, as in this case the Secretary of State is proposing the order, does it not show that he has already made up his mind before he has heard the...
Mr Stanley Crowther: Does the Minister accept from me, in reply to what his hon. Friend the Member for Amber Valley (Mr. Oppenheim) has just said, that what Opposition Members are saying is that until there is a dramatic change in the Government's economic policies, all the so-called assistance that is going into Rotherham and other areas with high unemployment will not solve the problem? Merely to produce...
Mr Stanley Crowther: Would it not be disgraceful if this small but important industry, which contributes many millions of pounds a year to the national economy, were allowed to die from lack of help from a Government who claim to be devoted to the free market philosophy but who have actively supported an international cartel which was set up to manipulate the market and whose activities the Select Committee found...
Mr Stanley Crowther: Does the Minister recall that during the long Phoenix 2 negotiations some engineering companies, which then had two choices of supplier, said that they would probably have to look overseas for second sourcing if a United Kingdom monopoly were established? Now that this has happened in the form of United Engineering Steels Ltd, will his Department monitor the position to establish whether...
Mr Stanley Crowther: Is the Minister giving the House a cast-iron assurance that the hidden subsidies which have operated for years in West Germany, for example, in the subsidisation of coking coal and of freight-rail transport, will be ended? It has been impossible to give such an assurance in the past.
Mr Stanley Crowther: In view of the serious consequences that arose from the undercapitalisation of Sheffield Forgemasters, is the Secretary of State satisfied that the resources being put into Phoenix 2 through the BSC will be adequate to meet all future investment that is needed, including the urgent need for new continuous casting facilities at Rotherham?
Mr Stanley Crowther: I was greatly relieved to hear the hon. Member for Honiton (Sir P. Emery) introduce a note of reality into the debate, after the romantic, not to say sentimental, speeches that we heard from the Government and Opposition Front Benches. I do not know whether the fact that their duties some time ago relieved them of having to sit in a Committee for hours on end has resulted in their memory...
Mr Stanley Crowther: I think that point has already been made. I am glad my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme spoke about his marathon performance that brought him worldwide fame. I was about to mention it anyway. The thing that is remembered about that speech, the big talking point, is that he spoke for 11¼ hours, but does anybody remember what he said? My hon. Friend remembers but nobody else...
