Mr Michael Foot: Further to that point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Of course I listened carefully to what the Father of the House said, but I could not detect any part of his intervention that could be construed as a point of order. What he was seeking to do was to make the case that he would have made had there been a general debate on the matter. Therefore, I submit to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, that what...
Mr Michael Foot: We still hope that, having gone so far, the right hon. Gentleman will be prepared seriously to consider incorporating in the Bill the form of words that the has put forward. The Bill will have no Report stage unless an amendment is carried, and we want a chance to examine the wording. I do not think that the right hon. Gentleman has answered the central question that I have put to him, as...
Mr Michael Foot: As the right hon. Gentleman has made his statement in the form that he has, I hope that he will consider incorporating those same words into the Bill—though whether they go as far as we would wish is something I should like to consider. If the Home Secretary incorporates those words into the Bill—and I trust that he will do so—I hope that he will then give the House an opportunity to...
Mr Michael Foot: My right hon. Friend the Member for Chesterfield (Mr. Benn) made a most important contribution to the debate and I do not want to be distracted by the disgraceful slurs and smears of which the hon. Member for Torbay (Mr. Allason) has just spoken in his references to the former Prime Minister and leader of the Labour party. If the hon. Gentleman was revealing the minds of some of his...
Mr Michael Foot: My right hon. Friend the Member for Chesterfield said that this was the nub of the Bill, and I believe that he is right. Yesterday there were extremely important debates in which the House sought to establish some parliamentary control over the way in which the Bill was operated and the way in which the security services might operate. The replies from the Home Secretary to that important...
Mr Michael Foot: Until they made it £150.
Mr Michael Foot: When he presented his Bill, the Minister pretended that it was a long-term measure and looked forward to the state of the labour market over many years. He told us that that was the kind of spacious outlook that we should adopt when considering the Bill. Of course it is right that the House and the country should consider not only the immediate situation but the situation five or ten years...
Mr Michael Foot: If many people are put out of jobs, productivity can be increased in certain cases. That is what the Government have done. I am saying that, on the Government's own test of the total number of people in employment, they have just got back to the total number of people employed in 1979—that is, if the Government figures are correct. For those of us who remember the contest of that election,...
Mr Michael Foot: My hon. Friend is right.
Mr Michael Foot: Disgraceful.
Mr Michael Foot: The hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Boscawen) and other Conservative Members have suggested that what we are proposing, or the outcome of our proposals, would be unfair to the Security Service or to people working within it. However, there have been gross injustices to people in the service in the past, in particular because of the way in which some accusations have been made in...
Mr Michael Foot: My hon. Friend raises an important matter. I should be happy to hear a reply by the Government, although I doubt whether they will attempt to do anything of that kind. If the Government will not give us any information about some of the matters which have been discussed throughout the country over the past year and a half, I doubt whether they will come forward with any information to answer...
Mr Michael Foot: If the hon. Gentleman is so inaccurate in his reporting of facts in his books as he is in the House of Commons, we shall have to watch carefully what he writes. He has misreported even Mr. Peter Wright. I fully understand that there are often good reasons for not treating Mr. Peter Wright with great respect. The Government have been engaged in great efforts across the world, at great cost to...
Mr Michael Foot: That is not a secret. The proposal for a parliamentary surveillance of these matters was not one that I raised in Cabinet, but there is strong case for it. All the evidence and outpourings of the activities about the security services in recent years confirm the good case that my right hon. Friend has made. Yesterday there was some talk about insults to the country. It is an insult to the...
Mr Michael Foot: I reinforce what was said by my hon. Friend the Member for Holborn and St. Pancras (Mr. Dobson) about the shocking proposal—if it has ever been a proposal—to start the football identity cards Bill in another place. Will the right hon. Gentleman take into account the fact that there was a debate in the House on that matter and that almost every speech, from both sides of the House, was...
Mr Michael Foot: When the Leader of the House gave his earlier answer about any advice given to Her Majesty the Queen by the Prime Minister about the prospective visit to Moscow, he seemed to imply that that was not a proper matter for discussion in the House. Will he clarify that? Is it not the case that, although of course the monarch must accept the advice of the Prime Minister on such matters, there is...
Mr Michael Foot: As the matter of previous guillotines has been raised, may I make a proposition to the Leader of the House which may help him out of some of his difficulties, although, particularly with a majority of well over 100, I have never seen such a legislative shambles as that which he presides over? May I make him a fair bargain to settle the matter once and for all? If I agree to a debate on the...
Mr Michael Foot: I appreciate the remarks of the hon. Member for Wirral, South (Mr. Porter), and I shall try to reinforce them later in my speech. I shall also try to be brief, as I know that many hon. Members wish to speak. Let me start with a word of sympathy for the Secretary of State. He has an extremely difficult and dangerous task to perform, and in most cases he does so with great skill and courage. I...
Mr Michael Foot: I fully agree with the hon. Gentleman and with the protest that he and other hon. Members made at the beginning of the debate. I hope that we shall be able to make a dent at least in the Government's intentions, and that we shall not allow this process to be used again. The Secretary of State will say that the present method of dealing with legislation in Northern Ireland has been in place...
Mr Michael Foot: Will the Secretary of State give way?
