Mr James Lamond: In view of the Government Actuary's report on our pension scheme, and the possibility of the Treasury reducing its contribution because it feels that there is too much money in it, should there not be a debate about it in the House? After all, hon. Members are concerned, for example, about the widows of late Members, whose benefits could be increased if there is more money in the fund than is...
Mr James Lamond: I congratulate the staff at all the passport offices mentioned by the Home Secretary on reducing waiting times. Will the Secretary of State bear in mind the tremendous anxiety of some people who get in touch with their Members of Parliament because they do not know whether their passports will arrive in time for holidays for which they have paid? While the short-term improvement that is...
Mr James Lamond: In answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Burnley (Mr. Pike) the Secretary of State mentioned 2.400 warheads. Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that when I mentioned the subject to the Prime Minister at Question Time, she dismissed it as nothing at all—just a small reduction by NATO? Will the right hon. Gentleman have a word with the Prime Minister and tell her which story they should go...
Mr James Lamond: Does the Minister realise that the electors whom he is trying to reach with his statements today will treat his remarks about the Labour party's proposal with disdain because they recall that it is not so long ago that he, other Ministers and Conservative Back Benchers were dismissing the poll tax with equal disdain and saying that it was iniquitous and would never be brought in? Now they...
Mr James Lamond: What my constituents in Oldham cannot understand is that, in the midst of this success story which the Minister has just told us about, last year, when they went on holiday to Spain, they got 202 pesetas for their pound, while this year they are getting only 192·5 pesetas. Does that reflect a strengthening of our economy?
Mr James Lamond: When the Secretary of State meets the consultants, as he has said he will, will he ask them if the people appointed to the new consultant posts that he intends to agree to—the 100 posts that have just been mentioned—will accept that they must devote 100 per cent. of their time to the National Health Service, and not, as at present, be permitted to devote as much time as they like to...
Mr James Lamond: The Minister was welcomed in Oldham, where he saw the Labour council's efforts to attract manufacturing jobs to the area. However, will he reconsider his answer to my hon. Friend the Member for St. Helens, North (Mr. Evans)? It was difficult to follow the Minister, but perhaps he meant that the unfortunate result of investment in manufacturing industry—such as in Pilkingtons and in...
Mr James Lamond: Does the Foreign Secretary think that it helps to advance the possibility of weapons reductions throughout the world when he sits in the Guildhall smiling and nodding while Mr. Gorbachev outlines the Soviet Union's unilateral proposals but then goes around the world slagging off those efforts and doing everything he can to undermine any possibility of confidence-building between our two nations?
Mr James Lamond: Surely the Secretary of State heard President Gorbachev spell out once again at the Guildhall last Friday the unilateral reductions that Russia is making in conventional forces and call on the rest of the world to do the same. As an excellent opportunity arose in the talks following the Vienna agreement, should not the Secretary of State, instead of boasting about excessive expenditure, be...
Mr James Lamond: Why does not the Minister, who knows something about the north-west, tell the Secretary of State that he is talking nonsense when he says that jobs are being exported because of trade union activity? The textile workers are struggling to obtain a £100 basic wage for a 39-hour week, while closures in the north-west are taking thousands of jobs, including 250 in Oldham just a fortnight ago.
Mr James Lamond: Is the Prime Minister's interest in human rights deep enough for her to place on the agenda of the conference on human rights in Paris under the Vienna talks the question of the treatment of political prisoners in Turkey, our NATO ally?
Mr James Lamond: The Minister mentioned that 18 Back Benchers were present to hear the debate. That is important. I want to explain why I have come, as my constituency is a little removed from the site of the Northern Ballet Theatre. I came to emphasise the spread of population surrounding this centre of culture in Manchester. It is necessary to realise that this affair has implications far beyond the bounds...
Mr James Lamond: Does the Secretary of State recall that when he last answered questions in the House he was asked whether he was prepared to match the initiative of President Gorbachev in reducing nuclear weapons, and boasted that he had left President Gorbachev far behind as he had reduced the number of nuclear weapons in Britain by 30 per cent. Why was he pretending to be a unilateralist then but now he is...
Mr James Lamond: Is it not a fact that if there are considerable delays before claims come to court and those claims turn on the evidence of witnesses of the accident, the witnesses' memory will be clouded, understandably, by the passage of time, so sometimes claims may fail on those grounds?
Mr James Lamond: When discussing no-fault compensation, does my hon. Friend recall that the last act of the Callaghan Government was to introduce the Pneumoconiosis etc. (Workers Compensation) Act 1979 of which I have some experience because it covered byssinosis in the textile industry? It divided those who suffered from byssinosis into two categories. One category covered those who had no former employer...
Mr James Lamond: Can the Leader of the House tell us whether any consideration has been given to the possibility of inviting President Gorbachev, during his visit this country next month, to address both Houses of Parliament, perhaps from the Royal Gallery?
Mr James Lamond: Does the Minister realise that his rather complacent attitude will not go down well with the many thousands of pensioners who were represented in the House recently with a petition calling for more police in the Greater Manchester area? Although the Minister may boast that the Home Secretary has been able to allocate an additional 45 police men, that does not measure up well to the request by...
Mr James Lamond: Does the Secretary of State realise that in abdicating his responsibilities and admitting that he and his Ministers are incapable of organising even proper remand centres he is not helping the many thousands of men and women who are held on remand? One such person is my constituent, Abdul Rehman, who is in Preston prison and has been on remand since 29 January 1988–13 months. His trial will...
Mr James Lamond: Is the Minister aware that the monetary policy is not working as satisfactorily as he thinks, according to the Manchester chamber of commerce and industry, which, in its latest bulletin, complains that high interest rates and a high pound are preventing firms from expanding at the rate that they would wish? Is he further aware that it feels that that policy may be all right for the...
Mr James Lamond: Does the Minister understand that we know that he does not believe those views any more than we do? How do these disastrous figures square with the rosy picture that has just been painted about the alleged confidence of manufacturing employers in this country? When the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Industry and Consumer Affairs says that his Department has received nothing but...
