Mr James Lamond: What about the deputy Prime Minister stepping in next week, perhaps at Question Time, to give the Prime Minister a bit of a break? What with rushing all over the place saving the world and so on, she has become so muddled that in a letter to me on Monday she referred——
Mr James Lamond: With respect, Mr. Speaker, I asked whether the deputy Prime Minister would step in next week in place of the Prime Minister. She is so muddled that she has forgotten which Ministers she moved in the reshuffles beause they are so frequent. It is misleading for hon. Members to receive letters asking them to get in touch with Ministers who have not been in the office concerned for more than...
Mr James Lamond: On a point of order, Mr. Speaker.
Mr James Lamond: On a point of order, Mr. Speaker.
Mr James Lamond: On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I signed the early-day motion and support the hon. Member for Winchester (Mr. Browne), but I do not see how the point that he is making has any relevance to next week's business. I expect fairness.
Mr James Lamond: In joining the welcome to the new Minister, I wonder whether the Prime Minister is aware of his appointment because this week she wrote to me telling me that inquiries about textile matters should be addressed to Mr. Alan Clark, the Minister at the Department of Trade and Industry, although he was moved from there in the reshuffle before last. Many motorists are still uncertain whether the...
Mr James Lamond: Will the Leader of the House bear in mind the need for a debate on the recently published report on the future of the multi-fibre arrangement by Professor Silberston? As the report draws conclusions that are likely to lead to the loss of many thousands of jobs in the textile industry, which would hit the north-west particularly hard, it should not be brought before the House in answer to a...
Mr James Lamond: On a point of order, Mr. Speaker.
Mr James Lamond: Earlier today, while the Secretary of State was making his statement at the Dispatch Box, I thought that I saw the civil servants in the Box to your right, Sir, hand out a number of copies of the paper to Conservative Back Benchers. I say that I thought I saw that happen—I was not sure. I would not raise the matter with you, Mr. Speaker, if I had been assured by the civil servants that that...
Mr James Lamond: Will the Secretary of State confirm that the figures that he caused his civil servants to work out for party-political purposes and which he has tried to represent as Labour party policy, are incorrect? Column 8, from which he has quoted several times, gives the tax bill resulting from local income tax rates when expenditure in the domestic sector is raised 100 per cent. from that source. The...
Mr James Lamond: Why does not the Secretary of State give us the other side of the picture? For example, more than 15,000 people have lost jobs in the textile industry this year alone. There is never a statement from the Dispatch Box, like the one boasting of the Honda investment, about the closure by Courtaulds in the north-west.
Mr James Lamond: I believe that we have a strong moral obligation to the people of Hong Kong. I think that every hon. Member realises that, but many are wriggling and trying to avoid facing up to it by making proposals which they think the people of Hong Kong should accept as a basis for future confidence in the behaviour of the Chinese People's Republic. It is very easy to lecture people in Hong Kong about...
Mr James Lamond: Further to that point of order. Mr. Speaker—
Mr James Lamond: This offence is compounded by the fact that the second statement concerned a matter with which the Government have told us they had nothing to do. Good news or not, one wonders whether it was necessary to make a statement of that length on a Thursday about a matter in which the Government are not concerned.
Mr James Lamond: Now that we have clearly established that the moral responsibility of the Government, Parliament and the people of Britain to the people of Hong Kong extends no further than doing what will cause us least discomfort, should we not drop the pretence that there is anything honourable about our stance? Should not the Foreign Secretary feel a little abashed about having to dress up his statement...
Mr James Lamond: To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 4 July.
Mr James Lamond: Is the right hon. Lady aware of the divided families campaign which is concerned with the plight of a very large number of immigrant families who for nearly two decades now have been refused permission for their spouses and families to join them in Britain? Now, through the new DNA fingerprint tests, they can prove without a shadow of a doubt that those people are their families, yet they are...
Mr James Lamond: Although we understand that it is Tory party policy and dogma to spread share ownership much wider, is it right to use public money to publish propaganda for that purpose?
Mr James Lamond: While joining in congratulating the hon. Lady on the information that her Department has issued to the public, I draw her attention to one point. When the owners of a number of cars listed as being fully available to use unleaded petrol consult the dealers—for example, Volkswagen vehicles—they are told that they have to use a tank of leaded petrol from time to time to keep the engines in...
Mr James Lamond: Government Back-Bench Members have tried to support their Minister's speech by painting a rosy picture of what is happening in their constituencies. It is not difficult to pick out one or two firms where productivity, efficiency and profitability have improved and investment has increased. But one or two such firms do not mean that the whole of manufacturing industry is doing well. The...
