Yorkshire and Humberside Region

Part of Orders of the Day — Supply – in the House of Commons at 6:27 pm on 29 June 1981.

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Photo of Mr Michael Shaw Mr Michael Shaw , Scarborough 6:27, 29 June 1981

I was greatly interested in the speech of the hon. Member for Colne Valley (Mr. Wainwright), who dealt with the problems that exist in his constituency and in the West Riding. I know many of those problems from my own personal and professional experience. I hope that he will excuse me if I do not follow him into the details of taxation. Due to the machinations of the House, I cannot at the moment discuss the details of taxation.

With regard to the hon. Gentleman's general observations, I feel that he has not taken into account the way that history has at last caught up with us. If we had not grasped the nettle—changing my metaphors rapidly—we would have been in a very serious mess. The difficulty is that, because we left it so long, the acceptance of reality was bound to be and has been painful.

Like others, I talk to business men in my constituency and to people on the shop floor. People over a wide area tell me that things are hard and that they are suffering, but they recognise that it had to come sooner or later, and they accept it. I do not think that there is any lack of hope for the future, but there are still some very difficult problems to be solved. I fully understand the tremendous problems which have been raised in the debate, and I would not want to treat lightly the experiences mentioned by various hon. Members.

I shall deal with the subject of small businesses, which the hon. Member for Colne Valley raised, later in my speech, when it will fit more naturally into it.

I wish to speak about three matters only. They relate fairly closely to my constituency, Scarborough, and particularly to the Yorkshire coastal area. The first is fishing. We all know the problems that have faced the fishing industry for many years, going back to the problems that we had with Iceland. It is a tragedy that agreements have not been reached that can provide legitimate hope for our fishermen.

The fishing industry is undoubtedly going through a difficult period—even worse perhaps than merely financial. Not only is confidence in the present position almost non-existent, but there is a rapidly growing lack of confidence in any future for the industry. That is not only sad but wrong. It is understandable, but it is wrong. What we need—here I speak for the inshore fishing fleet rather than for the deep-sea trawlers, which are in a more difficult position—is a fair agreement within the Common Market, which, now that the French elections are out of the way, we stand a good chance of getting. It will be difficult, but in my right hon. Friends the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Minister of State we have two of the best negotiators that we could possibly have, and I wish them every success in their current negotiations. The future of the fishing industry depends on their success. I am sure that they will succeed and justify our confidence in them.

More than that, if we can get a fair and reasonable profit in sight for the fishing industry as a result of the terms that are agreed, and if we have proper exclusive and conservation zones over which we have control, ports such as Scarborough will have a good future for their fishing industries. I should hate to see the confidence die away. We are going through difficult times, but confidence in the future should be maintained and preserved so that we can take advantage of the opportunities that I am sure will exist for the industry in future.

Tourism is the second industry about which I wish to speak. There have been big changes in the requirements of visitors to our seaside towns. By and large, certainly in the North, there is traditionally a very short season. So we have both the shortness of the season and the changing requirements of the visitors with which to cope. It is not sufficient to provide good beaches and bathing facilities for the kids. Today, much more has to be provided.

We must look carefully at the demands of the visitor on our resorts. First, he wants comfortable hotels. More than ever before, hotels should be treated like any manufacturing industry with regard to taxation and allowances. Here, again, I am constrained from going into detail, for reasons that the House well knows. However, I have made important speeches on that subject so many times that hon. Members will recall my views. I still hold to the opinion that I have expressed so often.

Besides that, visitors come to the resorts in their own transport and, as a result, want to get around. We must build up facilities so that they can go visiting and sight-seeing for the day. We must provide good amusement arcades. theatres and cinemas, but also make sure that facilities in our national parks and other such places are tip-top and ready to receive visitors. In Scarborough we provide many of those facilities in increasing measure.

There is one facility that we do not make the most of. I refer to golf courses. In America, golfing holidays—package tour golfing—are a popular pastime and vacation. We have golf courses on the East Coast that are a great attraction to golfers and I should like to see more use made of them as a holiday attraction. My hon. Friend the Member for Howden (Sir P. Bryan) has a world-famous golf course in his constituency near to Scarborough. We have two fine golf courses of our own in Scarborough. Package holidays with fixed terms for play on all the golf courses round about would be a great incentive for people to come to the area.

The conference trade is the third industry about which I wish to speak, because more and more we must look to that trade. In Scarborough, we are doing our best to provide up-to-date, modern facilities for conferences of all except the very largest sizes. No one regrets more than I do that we do not have a sufficiently large centre in which to hold the political conferences.