Clause 2 - Power to create combined fire and rescue authorities
Fire and Rescue Services Bill
3:45 pm
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
There are two questions wrapped up into one; whether I predict such a thing and whether I would fear it if I did. I suspect the answer to the hon. Gentleman is that I do not predict a rabid right-wing Tory Government. I predict a Tory Government led by my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard). Such a Government would, as the hon. Gentleman may already have started to perceive, provide a model of moderate and sensible government in their approach to the problems that the country has faced for the last seven years, which, under the present regime, show no signs of getting any better.
I ask that amendment No. 10 be put separately to a vote.