Mr James Lamond: I can remember the time when it was fashionable to say that we should not introduce so much legislation. We met 35 weeks a year, five days a week, and we were churning out enormous quantities of legislation, and it had to be halted. That was the view which was strongly held by Conservative Members. I must admit, however, that in recent parliaments that appears to have been forgotten, because...
Mr James Lamond: That is a point, but it is not one that is important in my argument. If I believed for one moment that it would make some difference of reasonable significance to the level of crime, I would accept the hon. Gentleman's proposal. I do not believe, however, that it will help at all. The right hon. Member for Brent, North said that those who do not believe that this measure would reduce crime...
Mr James Lamond: I understand that the Home Secretary ilas tried to help, but that help was not sufficient. It never is. It is, however, a step in the right direction. That is the proper way to stop the crimes of which we have heard, and the sort of crimes that have caused so much anxiety in my constituency and surrounding areas that several newspapers used my correspondence with the Home Secretary as a basis...
Mr James Lamond: The poll tax legislation comes into operation in Scotland this year. Everyone who fills in the poll tax form will, unlike the position in England, be required to give their date of birth. That has caused concern and trouble to the Scottish authorities. No one can understand why it is necessary, and not only women but men have objected strongly to having to give their date of birth.
Mr James Lamond: Is the Prime Minister aware that her right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence boasted on Tuesday that, since 1979, the Government have reduced the number of nuclear warheads in this country by 2,400 or 35 per cent? As negotiations on international disarmament have been going much better since the right hon. Lady made that unilateral arms cut, will she abandon her argument that one...
Mr James Lamond: A much-delayed agreement was recently reached in the Vienna CSCE talks, after our delegation, along with 34 other nations, had spent more than two years in negotiations. This agreement opens the door to far-reaching conventional disarmament talks between NATO and the Warsaw pact, as well as giving considerable hope for the improvement of human rights throughout Europe and northern America. It...
Mr James Lamond: Is the Minister looking forward to the talks about conventional weapon reductions in Europe which should flow from any agreement in Vienna? Will we be making a positive, progressive proposal there, rather than taking the negative attitude that we have taken to the proposals of President Gorbachev?
Mr James Lamond: I was present on that occasion. I advise the hon. Member for Bosworth (Mr. Tredinnick) to read the record of that debate, which bears out what was said by his hon. Friend the Member for Colne Valley (Mr. Riddick). He will also find that the hon. Member for Rochdale (Sir C. Smith), who, unfortunately, has not graced the Chamber with his presence, was bitterly opposed to the then Liberal...
Mr James Lamond: It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Macclesfield (Mr. Winterton), as I often do in debates of this kind. because he is so forthright in his views. I recall that 14 or 15 years ago, he and I formed the all-party cotton and textile group, which is still in existence, although its meetings are almost as cyclical as the industry itself. I say that it is a pleasure to follow the...
Mr James Lamond: The Minister is correct. I confess that I had not realised that he was so sensitive. If it helps his morale, I shall drop him a line when manufacturers write to me saying that they are having a good time. I shall certainly pass on any such letters. So far, I have not received any. Mr. John Longworth is the secretary of the Oldham and Rochdale Textile Employers Association Ltd. and a good...
Mr James Lamond: Does the Minister recognise that certain industries are heavily concentrated in some regions, such as textiles in the north-west? Now that the textile industry is facing difficulties once again, does the right hon. Gentleman have any special measures that he intends to put into operation—such as additional finance to Inward, the development agency in the north-west—to enable any temporary...
Mr James Lamond: Why should we have any confidence in employers leading the way in training, when the lack of apprenticeships in the past few years has clearly demonstrated that they cannot see beyond the end of their noses? We not only need to train people for the jobs that are available now: we also need a long-term strategy for training in the future. Employers who are concerned only with the present...
Mr James Lamond: Does the Minister unequivocally and strongly support the statement made by the Under-Secretary of State?
Mr James Lamond: Are the Government maintaining their determination not to agree to a third meeting of the committee on human relations, which is proposed to be held in Moscow? Are we maintaining resistance to that on the grounds that, although in eastern Europe they are extending human rights quite a lot, and certainly will have done so by 1991, we in Britain are moving in the opposite direction?
Mr James Lamond: When the Minister introduced the revised guidelines today he presented them as though they were just and reasonable and were intended to assist hon. Members and perhaps, as a by-product, to assist himself because a burden will be lifted from his shoulders. I do not believe that that will happen. He should ask himself why he receives so many thousands of letters every year from hon. Members....
Mr James Lamond: If the Secretary of State believes that the child allowance is an indiscriminate waste of taxpayers' money aimed at the wrong people, why did he support the commitment in the manifesto that it would continue?
Mr James Lamond: Should not the Secretary of State be seeking a meeting with the TUC to apologise for the constant repetition by him, by other Ministers and by Tory Back Benchers of the claim that the TUC has turned its back on the unemployed, when he and those Ministers and Back Benchers were responsible for creating long-term unemployment, constantly denying having any responsibility for it and doing...
Mr James Lamond: When the Minister remembers that many thousands of small investors have lost at least a quarter of their capital, some of them perhaps 75 per cent. of it, together with the income that they derived from it, and when he recalls the crocodile tears that have been wept over the years, by the Prime Minister in particular, over the erosion of old people's capital by inflation, and also the very...
Mr James Lamond: Whatever feelings the Minister may have on behalf of Romanians of Hungarian origin, if he pays regard to the reports that he receives from the embassy in Bucharest he must know that the systemisation of villages is not an act of discrimination against Hungarians. I see the Minister nodding. He may dislike the act of the Romanians in modernising their villages— [Interruption.]—systemising...
Mr James Lamond: Will the Leader of the House give permission to the Prime Minister to tell us next week about the angry exchanges that she no doubt had with the President of Turkey about the lack of human rights and the lack of respect for the Helsinki Final Act in Turkey, and the angry demands which she no doubt made for the removal of his troops of occupation from the northern part of Cyprus? They have...
