Mr Humphrey Atkins: No, Sir. I am in favour of preventing them from being used. The West has prevented those or any other weapons being used against it for 40 years by employing the nuclear deterrent. The idea that, with a grand gesture, one can throw away a weapon and expect a potential enemy to do the same has no basis in history. We all wish that this state of affairs did not exist, but it does. It is the...
Mr Humphrey Atkins: I was going to remind the House that it is rather more than the cost of a type 23, which is given as £110 million, or, if the House prefers, it is slightly more than the cost of the 130 Tucano trainers that the Royal Air Force is buying from Short Bros Ltd.
Mr Humphrey Atkins: My hon. Friend may have been looking over my shoulder when I was making my notes. I wonder whether he will allow me to come to that point in a moment.
Mr Humphrey Atkins: Does my hon. Friend agree that the tourist attractions of Northern Ireland are very considerable and that not least among those attractions is the warm welcome that tourists receive from at least 99 per cent. of the population? Is my hon. Friend satisfied that the opportunities given to the Northern Ireland Tourist Board by our missions abroad to bring this home to foreigners, who, in large...
Mr Humphrey Atkins: Over the years I have often been in disagreement with the hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mrs. Dunwoody). Today is no exception. I particularly disagree with her on two matters. The hon. Lady criticised the Government for having the debate today. It is strange that the Opposition should criticise the Government for having a debate in advance of a decision. Oppositions almost always say...
Mr Humphrey Atkins: I thank my hon. Friend for his invitation. I shall not rehearse all the arguments that were presented by the consortium to Mr. Eyre because anybody who wishes to find out what they are can read them. However, I shall refer to noise and to the effect upon the roads. I do not propose to dwell upon the subject of noise, for it is only two months since the Second Reading debate on the Civil...
Mr Humphrey Atkins: No; I am in the middle of this point and I shall not give way. It is alleged that as time passes—this is part of the reason why Mr. Eyre believes that there may be an improvement — there will be less noise because there will be fewer aeroplanes. I have yet to meet anybody who seriously believes that 23 million extra people can be carried in and out of Heathrow each year without an...
Mr Humphrey Atkins: I accept everything that my hon. Friend has said. However, I shall turn from the subject of noise, because we have already heard a good deal about it, to roads — another important part of the case made by the consortium. The difficulties surrounding getting into and out of London to the west are well known. When the construction of terminal 4 was being considered about seven years ago, Mr....
Mr Humphrey Atkins: No, otherwise I shall be on my feet all afternoon, and nobody wants that. In his most recent report Mr. Graham Eyre was more dismissive. He said: conditions on the highway network in the Heathrow area and in particular along the M4/A4 corridor are unacceptable. In chapter 38, paragraph 11.9, he said that a working party ought to be set up to investigate what could be done about this...
Mr Humphrey Atkins: Indeed, it would have to be. If this development went ahead, any rail link would need to take a very much higher proportion of passengers than the current underground link because the underground link represents only about 10 per cent. of passenger traffic and is virtually insignificant. Over a number of years, the Government have consistently stated publicly that terminal 5 will not be...
Mr Humphrey Atkins: Does my right hon. Friend recollect that it is almost exactly five years since his precedessor with responsibility for these matters, Sir John Nott, together with the then Secretary of State for the Environment, now the Secretary of State for Defence, issued a statement confirming that the Government intended to impose a limit of 275,000 air traffic movements at Heathrow? The statement was...
Mr Humphrey Atkins: Sit down, you silly man.
Mr Humphrey Atkins: Mr. Speaker, I beg leave to present two petitions from residents of the borough of Spelthorne. The first petition was initiated by Mr. Christopher Redding of Ashford, Middlesex, and contains 489 signatures, and the second was initiated by the Reverend Peter Brown, the vicar of Laleham, and contains 108 signatures. Both are in identical terms. They affirm the petitioners' belief that the...
Mr Humphrey Atkins: The hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mrs. Dunwoody) started her speech by saying that she thought that the Bill was a panic measure. I venture to suggest that she forgot or did not know that several of us, including myself, have been pressing my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for years to bring it forward. We hoped that he would bring it forward sooner, but he has done so now....
Mr Humphrey Atkins: I am grateful for my hon. Friend's support. I know that his constituents suffer as much as mine. I am not entitled to speak for other Members' constituents, but my conversations with Members who represent surrounding areas suggest that they will be as pleased as I. I hope that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State will take some comfort from that support from Members who know what they...
Mr Humphrey Atkins: Is my right hon. Friend aware of the strength of feeling of a large number of the 37,000 remaining employees of British Airways who, having gone along willingly with a reduction in the work force from 58,000, now believe that the Civil Aviation Authority's suggestion that more of their routes should be taken away and more of their jobs lost is bad and hope that he will turn it down?
Mr Humphrey Atkins: I had hoped that this debate would come on earlier, not just because it is now late, but because the conservation of the countryside, of which all of us who live in these islands are so proud and which all of us love so much, deserves a much longer time for discussion than art Adjournment debate at this hour. Nevertheless, I intend in the time available to outline a few areas of particular...
Mr Humphrey Atkins: The hon. Gentleman appears to know more about the intentions of the United States Government than any other hon. Member. He argues that they will go ahead with these propositions. He has not taken into account what we know about Congress, the Senate and House of Representatives. Does he know more about the United States Government's intentions than we do, and if so will he please tell us?
Mr Humphrey Atkins: I asked for an assurance that in the next White Paper, unlike this one, we should once again have what the Ministry of Defence used to provide, namely, a report on the size of the merchant fleet available to the Ministry of Defence in times of emergency. May I have that assurance?
Mr Humphrey Atkins: I am always pleased when the right hon. Member for Llanelli (Mr. Davies) speaks. He has a pleasant voice, to which I enjoy listening, and I always live in the hope that I shall discover what the Labour party really thinks is the proper way in which to defend the country. The trouble is that we do not find out. We have the Opposition amendment, which is designed to be read by the Opposition's...
