Mr Neville Sandelson: Yes, I went to Westminster. I am happy to say that my children are being educated in the maintained system. Has the hon. Gentleman studied the facts about the intake of the direct grant schools? Is he not aware—headmasters and teachers in the direct grant schools never talk about these facts, and they are studiously ignored by all Conservative hon. Members—that the overwhelming majority...
Mr Neville Sandelson: Will the right hon. Gentleman at least concede that in the year ended 1972, far from there being an increase in the strength of the Metropolitan Police, there was a net decrease of about 60 men? That being so, and bearing in mind the special problems we face in the Metropolis, will he not also concede that special measures and increases in remuneration are required if we are to get anywhere...
Mr Neville Sandelson: I shall be fairly brief because the case we have against the Government has been most succinctly put by my hon. Friend the Member for Hitchin (Mrs. Shirley Williams). I listened to the Home Secretary with the respect which he always commands in this House, though I must say that his speech will provide but cold comfort for the public, some of the more gullible of whom feel badly let down by...
Mr Neville Sandelson: Does the Minister see any sense in the extremely expensive campaign which has been mounted to encourage people to use safety belts, while, as the same time, an additional tax is imposed on their purchase? I refer to value added tax.
Mr Neville Sandelson: Is not the hon. Gentleman going wildly beyond the sphere with which the Bill is concerned? He is considering matters that are quite outside the Bill's scope and matters which were not in the minds of the Bill's promoters. The question of depravity and corruption surely is one which might provide a successful loophole for those whom one would seek to prosecute for public displays of the kind...
Mr Neville Sandelson: Before my hon. Friend sits down, he has touched on matters which I suggest are somewhat remote from the scope of the Bill. He began by saying that he was speaking personally about these matters. But I hope he is aware that there are many differing opinions about what he has been saying. Many of us would regard it as a serious invasion of essential individual freedoms if we were to legislate...
Mr Neville Sandelson: Within the law.
Mr Neville Sandelson: I hope hon. Members will overlook the fact that I entered the Chamber only a short time ago. However, I have been following my hon. Friend's speech with great sympathy and interest. May I ask him to link the gas workers in his remarks about the hospital ancillary workers? Is it not the fact that the gas workers, who are represented by a union—the General and Municipal Workers' Union—which...
Mr Neville Sandelson: Very successfully too!
Mr Neville Sandelson: Would the hon. Gentleman be good enough to tell the House what possible relevance what he is saying at the moment has to the matter with which the House is concerned?
Mr Neville Sandelson: Much of what the hon. Member for Yarmouth (Mr. Fell) said was more by way of a divertissement than a serious contribution to the debate. The hon. Member referred to the Smoking Room. Some hon. Members may share my view that what he had to contribute to the debate might well have been said there rather than here. I felt some sympathy with the hon. Member for Essex, South-East (Sir Bernard...
Mr Neville Sandelson: I appreciate that remark, but it was for the Government to have initiated this debate and not to have left it to be discussed on a Friday on a private Member's motion. I hope that the Government will note the strong views that have been expressed; and what I believe to be the majority feeling in the House that construction should start without further dragging of feet. As it is not quite two...
Mr Neville Sandelson: I am interested in the hon. Member's story. Will he tell the House how many other people who are awarded wage increases of £700 a year do not want them?
Mr Neville Sandelson: But this is recovery from a low base.
Mr Neville Sandelson: Does not the hon. Gentleman accept that it would be much to the advantage of the police, whom we all admire in their work, if the widest possible publicity were given, through the channels of an independent review tribunal, to the frivolous nature of many complaints which are made against the police?
Mr Neville Sandelson: My sole reason for intervening arises out of the speech of the hon. Member for Uxbridge (Mr. Shersby). I tried to find him and to warn him that I should be making a brief reference to what he said. Whatever regrets I have about the outcome of his by-election, I have no reservations about joining in the welcome which the House has given to him today and in the congratulations on his maiden...
Mr Neville Sandelson: Does the hon. Gentleman realise that the problems with which the House has been concerned today are of such complexity and of such concern to millions of people living in the city that there is a widespread feeling that a Royal Commission and nothing else should be appointed to examine and analyse the problems in depth? Only in that way can we reassure the people of London that the Government...
Mr Neville Sandelson: If Egypt has shown such willingness to arrive at a peaceful settlement, will the hon. Member explain why it has not got together with Israel around a conference table, as the whole world would have expected it to do in the circumstances, and arrive at what one would have hoped would have been a reasonable settlement? Certainly—and I am sure that the hon. Member can hardly contradict...
Mr Neville Sandelson: Harbouring Munich murderers.
Mr Neville Sandelson: Would the Minister explain what he would do in regard to asset-stripping operations where there is no possibility of a reference to the Monopolies Commission because it simply does not come within the commission's terms of reference?
