Mr Spencer Le Marchant: The subject of this Adjournment debate is the beauty and the preservation of the beauty of our countryside. Let us remember that the countryside as we know it is not something that has just appeared as if by magic; it is the work and the partnership between the farmers and farm workers and nature itself. That has been going on for hundreds and hundreds of years. Future generations will not...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: I thought that the letter written by Mr. Bottini was ably answered by the cowman in The Times on Monday. Living at 1,000 ft.—and I was in my constituency only 12 hours ago—may I say that in present conditions, if cottages there, at a height of 1,000 ft., were to go out of farm occupation, it would be physically impossible, as it was last weekend, and almost impossible now, to gain...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for his suggestion. As is well known, and as was said in another place, my hon. Friend and Member for Derbyshire, West (Mr. Scott-Hopkins) and I have throughout supported the six county and the nine local councils in this matter. It is a truly non-party issue, and I feel a little humble to be discussing it with the son of a distinguished gentleman who...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: asked the Secretary of State for Energy whether the Selby coal developments qualify for aid from the European Investment Bank or other Community sources.
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: Does the Under-Secretary therefore recognise that it is very much in the national interest that he should go as soon as possible to the European Investment Bank to get a loan for this purpose?
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: asked the Minister for the Civil Service if he will give urgent attention to the pay claim of Government scientists.
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: I congratulate the Minister upon his appointment. Does he realise that there is evidence of illness caused by worry over this matter, and will he be as speedy as possible in resolving it?
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: I do not expect the hon. Member for Aberdare (Mr. Evans) will wish me to follow him except in welcoming him back to this House. I think that I have been living in a different country from him in the last three-and-a-half years. I hope that when he has been here a little longer things will be slightly different from what he described in his contribution tonight. I particularly welcome the...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: Twenty-five years ago, short of a few days, a previous Member for the High Peak Division, a great conservationist then and a great conservationist today, the noble Lord, Lord Molson, initiated a similar debate. He was criticising, at the earlier hour of 7.18 p.m., the quarrying policy of the Government of the day. I rise not to do that but to draw the attention of my right hon. Friend the...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: I did not say that I should like it to be called in. I was asking for my right hon. and learned Friend to acquaint himself with the whole of this very important subject. At the beginning of my speech I said that I believed that it should be considered locally but that it should be known to my right hon. and learned Friend at this stage because it was such a very important matter.
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: I find the motion inhuman because it speaks only of those who produce fuel According to The Guardian this week production is down by between 35 per cent. and 40 per cent. The motion contains no word of the effect that the go-slow is already having because of the refusal to work overtime. I am sure that the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner) as a Derbyshire Member, will be sorry to hear...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: I do not have those figures.
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: No doubt the hon. Gentleman will be able to give those figures if he catches your eye, Mr. Deputy Speaker. On average, the loss of coal during the period of the Labour Government was 50 million tons a year. The Liberal record is no better. The hon. Member for Bolsover mentioned the then Member for Orpington now Lord Avebury, who said : … in so far as it is socially and economically...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: As the hon. Member for Staly-bridge and Hyde (Mr. Pendry) said, the House owes a great debt to my hon. Friend the Member for Middleton and Prestwich (Mr. Haselhurst) for bringing up a problem which might appear only to be a ripple but will grow into a great wave. We are talking about the lives and environment of many people. In my constituency there are but 4,000 of these souls in about...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: I welcome the debate and the tone in which it has been conducted. Over the years we seem able to discuss this subject in a more reasonable manner, although our feelings about it are no less deep. No longer are statistics brandished to prove the barbarity of the practice. No longer do scientists give the pat answers to which we have been accustomed. It is agreed that there is no evidence of...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: The point I wish to make is that the Government are doing more than any other Government have ever done. I am sure that successive Governments, of any party, will do a great deal and will go on working on the lines of which the hon. Member for Swansea, East has spoken. The problem is one of which both parties are now fully aware. I am convinced that the Government are doing as much as they...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: I believe that our present system is right, and that its constitution is the right way to deal with the problem. I believe that my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State plans to issue a guide to local authorities on the subject. I am sure that it will be extremely helpful. It would be wrong to blame the alkali inspectors for the present situation. The answer is to go not for...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: I was about to say that the best way to achieve what we all want is by means of ever-increasing efficiency in day-to-day work. A lot has been done but there is still a good deal more to do, and I believe it can be done under the existing arrangements.
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: When the Chancellor of the Exchequer presented his Budget last year, I felt that it was the most important Budget that I could remember. I felt it particularly important because it planned not only for the year ahead but for a Parliament; it planned for the several years which the Government had ahead of them. I regard this Budget as far more important because in its very conception it is...
Mr Spencer Le Marchant: I suggest that it is a Budget which helps the regions a great deal; it helps the individual by the change in the personal allowances so speedily at the beginning of May, quicker than ever before; if helps them through the purchase tax reductions, and that is not only for businessmen; by exempting many millions of people from tax; it helps by increasing pensions. This is a Budget for the...
