Mr Timothy Eggar: Yes, because I do not want to mislead the House in any way. The automatic shutdown mechanism, which is installed for safety purposes, immediately closed down the station. The station manager decided, entirely on his own discretion, that he would stop on-load refuelling. Following normal practice, that incident was disclosed in the site newspaper. which is widely distributed, at the beginning...
Mr Timothy Eggar: Absolutely. That article referred to meltdown and such possibilities, which was entirely bogus, as anybody who knows the nuclear industry is aware. Nuclear Electric then decided that it would raise the issues with Scottish Nuclear, which decided, for safety reasons—because of the similar design at Torness—not to continue, for the moment, with the on-load refuelling. The company is now...
Mr Timothy Eggar: I absolutely agree with my right hon. Friend.
Mr Timothy Eggar: Perhaps I may be allowed to answer my right hon. Friend before giving way to the right hon. Lady. As I say, my right hon. Friend is correct. It is outrageous to suggest that the staff of either Scottish Nuclear or Nuclear Electric would imperil their own safety or that of their families or workmates. I have met many representatives of the work force of both those companies, and I have met...
Mr Timothy Eggar: This is a long intervention.
Mr Timothy Eggar: I did not hear the hon. Lady seek the leave of the House to speak for a second time. She condemned herself out of her own mouth. She effectively said, by implication, that the management of Nuclear Electric and Scottish Nuclear had decided to run the stations at a level of output that effectively rendered them unsafe. That is what the right hon. Lady said, and I suggest that she studies with...
Mr Timothy Eggar: I must make some progress. I have been on my feet for 15 minutes and I have been constantly interrupted. However, for old time's sake, I shall give way to the hon. Member for Clackmannan (Mr. O'Neill), but I must then be allowed to continue with my speech.
Mr Timothy Eggar: That was a fair question from the hon. Gentleman. I regret that he no longer contributes from the Opposition Front Bench, as he would undoubtedly raise the tone of the debate. An issue arose with regard to one particular thin stainless steel sleeve in Heysham. Prior to that, some 150 fuel channels had been refuelled without any problems. Also prior to that, there had been on-line refuelling,...
Mr Timothy Eggar: No, I have been extremely generous with the amount of time that I have given to interventions. It is fair to turn to the benefits of electricity privatisation, because—
Mr Timothy Eggar: —the fact is that the privatisation—
Mr Timothy Eggar: The benefits of electricity privatisation are absolutely clear: costs have been reduced, efficiencies introduced and investment in infrastructure secured. In real terms, domestic electricity prices throughout the United Kingdom have fallen by 7 per cent. and industrial prices by 10 per cent. Domestic electricity consumers in England and Wales have benefited from a £50 rebate on their...
Mr Timothy Eggar: The right hon. Lady, presumably wishing to speak for a third time—this time from a sedentary position—asked whether all the liabilities would follow the assets. I say to her again, as I have said consistently over a period, that the assets that go into the private sector will be followed by their attendant liabilities. It would be quite wrong for the liabilities to remain in the public...
Mr Timothy Eggar: That will become absolutely clear in the documentation that will be associated with the sale of the nuclear industry. Work on it is continuing. The hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well that my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade yesterday announced the terms of the segregated funds. As the hon. Gentleman also knows, that deals with the specific issue of the sites that will be...
Mr Timothy Eggar: If the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, I want to press on. The right hon. Member for Derby, South referred yet again to that old canard, the figures in the Red Book. She should know that she is, of course, completely misconstruing them. We assumed in the previous years that the nuclear industry would remain in the public sector, and therefore, between the two years, made the assumption in...
Mr Timothy Eggar: I am sorry, I thought that I had made myself clear. There is a difference between the nuclear industry and other industries because of the very strict and clearly channelled liability that lies almost uniquely on nuclear operators. It is therefore in a different category in any case. The hon. Gentleman appears not to have recognised another factor. In many of the other countries that are...
Mr Timothy Eggar: That is a perfectly fair summary, although I would go further even than my hon. Friend. Labour Members simply hate privatisation, because they are as anti-enterprise and as anti-success now as they have ever been. They hate privatisation because it denies them the opportunity to meddle with and to add burdens on business. Labour has opposed every privatisation we have made.
Mr Timothy Eggar: The hon. Gentleman says, "Quite right." In fairness to him, he would be prepared, if he were on the Front Bench, to say that the Labour party would renationalise the nuclear industry.
Mr Timothy Eggar: Yes, he would. He is a man of conviction and a man with backbone, unlike the right hon. Member for Derby, South, who is quite prepared to make elaborate speeches, but not to back up her words with action. The Labour party is a member of a unique club—a unique club of two. The new Labour party joins North Korea as the only sensible political movement that is still opposed to privatisation...
Mr Timothy Eggar: The hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well that consumers who have benefited from privatisation welcome the advantages of it. How many letters has the hon. Gentleman had from constituents complaining about the £50 rebate on their electricity bill? Does he think for a moment that the rebate would have been given had the electricity industry still been owned by the public sector? Quite the...
Mr Timothy Eggar: I agree with my hon. Friend. I think that the right hon. Member for Derby, South agrees, because she is not prepared to renationalise because she knows that privatisation means benefits for taxpayers and customers, lower prices and better standards of service. That is why I urge my right hon. and hon. Friends to vote against the motion and in favour of the Government's amendment.
