Mr Spencer Le Marchant: They are laughing.
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: The House has been done a great service by the motion in the name of my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Royal Tunbridge Wells (Mr. Mayhew). The House was done a great service by the hon. Member for Isle of Wight (Mr. Ross) who tabled a similar motion on 20th December. My hon. and learned Friend put forward some concrete ideas which should be considered. I was interested in what the...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: Not entirely. The hon. Lady is correct in saying that overcrowding has not occurred overnight. However, it has never been the problem that it is today. Therefore, more money must be spent on the Prison Service. The problem of overcrowding has been illustrated by the riots at Hull Prison as well as by shortages of money for prison staff, with warders having to do less overtime, with the...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: My point about Hull—[HON. MEMBERS: "Withdraw."] I agree entirely with what the Minister has said about Hull, but there is overcrowding in well over 50 per cent. of the 120 prisons. Hull is not one of the prisons with overcrowding. To return to the Hughes report, in his general remarks on the régime, the Governor in his annual report for 1976 on Her Majesty's Prison, Leicester, states:...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: The police establishment is 116,000. The present number of police is 100,000. Therefore, we are 16,000 short.
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: Over 200,000 people work for the sucurity services. I shall be pleased to give details to the hon. Gentleman.
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: It was far more difficult, when the Conservative Party was in office, to get recruits for the police service because we had full employment—
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: The Government know quite well that under their regime unemployment has more than doubled. If they want to deny that, let them try. We must consider what should be done to protect property and families. It will be done only by expenditure. It will not be done by the Government. On 17th March 1975 my hon. Friend the Member for Thanet, East (Mr. Aitken) asked whether we could afford not to...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: Is the Home Secretary aware of the confidence which everyone has in Derbyshire in the impartiality of the actions of the Chief Constable and other members of the police force at all times? The people of Derbyshire realise that, if the police cannot fulfil all the duties we would like them to fulfil, it is because the money is simply not available.
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: Is the Minister aware of the disquiet in my constituency, where this tragedy took place, about the general supervision of children when they go out on to the moors or into potholes? We want all our children to lead full lives, but parents will not let them take part in these activities if they are not confident that they will be fully supervised. I visited the site very shortly after the...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: I am grateful for this opportunity to bring to your attention, Mr. Speaker, and that of the House a matter that I consider to be of the greatest urgency. Over many years we have considered the question of our heritage, our National Parks. They have been in existence for nearly 25 years, but I shall try to show that we have not managed to legislate sufficiently to allow these parks, which are...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: I was talking about the £237,000 of public money that is being spent without producing any extra rights of access for people who visit the area.
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: Will the Minister agree that secrecy is highly undesirable and that we must have maximum consultation to build up a good relationship? If it is decided that it is desirable to buy something, let us have consultation between the local authorities and the park boards. Let us have done with all the secrecy. That is what causes the ill feeling.
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: I am sure that the House would not want me to be sandwiched between West Lothian, Walsall and Argyll. I should, however, like to welcome the hon. Member for Erith and Crayford (Mr. Wellbeloved) to the Government Front Bench. He was remarkably efficient in managing in his previous job to put up certain costs in the House by 16 per cent. If he manages to increase by 16 per cent. the amount of...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: Can the hon. Gentleman say how long it would take to assemble helicopters, if we do not keep the big freighters, to get forces out to a place like Belize, which in that case took somethting under a day? If we did not keep our big freighters, we would not be able to do it in under three days.
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: I want to speak not to what is in the Bill but to what is not in the Bill. The hon. Member for Basildon (Mr. Moonman), in his very useful contribution, said that new towns were unique. I do not believe that new towns are unique. I believe that any large collection of houses out of which a community is formed has exactly the same problems. I should like to address the House specifically on...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: I shall certainly vote for the Bill provided we have an assurance that it will give tenants the right to buy their houses.
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: To speak following the hon. Member for Thornaby (Mr. Wrigglesworth) is a privilege, because I know that he has put a great deal of time into the consideration of the Bill. I realise that many hon. Members on both sides of the Chamber have given the Bill a great deal of their time, care and consideration. We must get down to the basics. Is the Post Office right? Has it got its sums right? Is...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: How much longer are we to accept the large losses that are being made by Giro? We know that on Second Reading the Minister said that the small profit of last year should not be taken as a sign that a profit can be maintained. That is important to remember. If we do not think that we can maintain the small profit that was made last year following the vast losses which this Socialist emporium...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: The Minister said that there was no precedent for parliamentary approval of targets set by Government for the nationalised industries. This is an example of vast Government expenditure which will bring no return to the taxpayer.
