Mr Dick Douglas: Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman give way?
Mr Dick Douglas: rose—
Mr Dick Douglas: rose—
Mr Dick Douglas: On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. The right hon. and learned Gentleman has been lecturing everyone on public sector borrowing requirements. In the heat of the debate I may be in danger of misquoting him, for which I apologise, but I think that he said that it was right to have a £28 billion—
Mr Dick Douglas: It is a matter of putting the record straight. I think that I am correct in saying that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has been lecturing the House—
Mr Dick Douglas: I am asking you, Madam Deputy Speaker, to assist the House in setting the record straight. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury made a statement about the public sector borrowing requirement, and said that it was because the Government had to finance certain expenditure, but the reason for the £28 billion rise in PSBR is—as everyone knows—that the right hon. and learned Gentleman...
Mr Dick Douglas: Turning from the attractions of the Scotch whisky industry, can the Minister give us more information about the important regulatory aspects of getting companies which sub-contract to the Ministry of Defence to pay their bills or have them paid quickly? As I am sure that the Minister will appreciate, it is important for the cash flow of small businesses that settlements be paid appropriately...
Mr Dick Douglas: Can the Secretary of State give more information about numbers? He gave the raw statistics and referred to 7,000 jobs, and we gather that they will be preserved or created by this order. In the last few weeks, we have had procurement orders worth over £1 billion—[HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."] But all those were announced in connection with the defence White Paper, so the right hon....
Mr Dick Douglas: Will the Secretary of State take a little time to reflect on a previous answer on non-proliferation? How can he, in logic or in practice, sustain a position whereby he is asking the Soviet Union, as was, to dismantle its nuclear deterrents while he is embarking on a system in which each missile provides the equivalent of 80 Hiroshima bombs? The Secretary of State talked about cost. How can he...
Mr Dick Douglas: Will the Minister confirm that what he has announced is within the existing procurement budget for his Ministry and that over the years that budget will decline? Could he give us some idea how many jobs are likely to be created by the expenditure of the £500 million and what proportion of those jobs will be in Scotland? As he will know, a report commissioned by Scottish Enterprise on...
Mr Dick Douglas: What distinction does the Minister make between education and training? Many of the people who come under the first proposal would be paying back loans for educational purposes. Can the Secretary of State tell us how many people might be involved in this so-called transfer fee racket, which seems to be difficult to administer? Will he tell us about the relationship between his Department and...
Mr Dick Douglas: I support the hon. Member for Dundee, West (Mr. Ross) on that issue, and I declare a long-standing interest. I was involved, in the Dundee college of technology, in bringing the CNAA into the department of commerce and economics at the university. That must be 25 or 30 years ago. I have corresponded with the Minister on that matter. The points raised by the hon. Member for Dundee, West...
Mr Dick Douglas: rose—
Mr Dick Douglas: I hope that the Minister can help me by clarifying this matter. Is he saying that he is resisting the new clause because the first of the powers sought is covered in other legislation? If so, what valid reason has he for not putting that aspect of the new clause into the Bill? Why can he not do that?
Mr Dick Douglas: The Minister need go no further than along the road to Stirling university, on whose court I served. Without going into too much detail, I can tell him that the university is working under considerable financial limitations. It is not quite truthful, therefore, to tell the House that Edinburgh is unique. Other universities work under similar restraints, although they may not be of the same...
Mr Dick Douglas: I concede that. However, in relation to need, we are well behind other nations' industrial market strategies. We have devoted far too much of our fundamental research expenditure to defence purposes and the spin-off, in terms of our industrial market share, has not come about. Scotland is a small nation that must exist on its intellectual capabilities, which is why the new clause has been...
Mr Dick Douglas: "Moderation in the pursuit"—
Mr Dick Douglas: Originally I thought that new clauses 1 and 2 were not linked, but, on reflection, I believe that they are. The burden of my remarks will relate to new clause 2. It is not my intention to make a speech similar to that of the hon. Member for Aberdeen, North (Mr. Hughes), except to say that I have a great deal of sympathy for what he said. What we are asking for, and what we must try to...
Mr Dick Douglas: The hon. Member confirms my point. An academic who deals with susceptible and impressionable individuals, even at the ages of 18, 19 or 20, particularly if he teaches economics, political theory, politics or Scottish history, should let his students recognise his bias. He should make them realise that a university is not simply a forum for lectures but a community of students and academics....
Mr Dick Douglas: I do not deny that he may be a member of the Labour party—good luck to him. I do not care which party he belongs to, because he has a great mind. He has gathered round him students of a high calibre because he is capable of doing certain fundamental research in Oxford. Although he may have been bid away to other institutions in the United States, he stayed in the United Kingdom. It is...