Adam Smith Institute

Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 5 July 1989.

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Photo of George Galloway George Galloway , Glasgow Hillhead 12:00, 5 July 1989

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what recent communications he has had with Mr. Douglas Mason and the Adam Smith Institute; and if he will make a statement.

Photo of Malcolm Rifkind Malcolm Rifkind Secretary of State for Scottish Office

I have had a number of contacts with Mr. Mason and with the Adam Smith Institute. I have always found them stimulating and I hope that they will continue.

Photo of George Galloway George Galloway , Glasgow Hillhead

In any of those contacts was the Secretary of State spared Mr. Douglas Mason's bizarre and unbelievable idea that Hong Kong should be towed, lock, stock and barrel and relocated off the west coast of Scotland, on one of the western isles? As I listened to the radio interview, I thought that the man must be barking mad, until I realised that it was the same Douglas Mason who was the architect of the poll tax. Will the Secretary of State see whether there is a rocky outcrop somewhere on the edge of our territorial waters where Mr. Douglas Mason, the Adam Smith Institute and the trash Thatcherite ideas, which have no support in Scotland, might be relocated?

Photo of Malcolm Rifkind Malcolm Rifkind Secretary of State for Scottish Office

I said that I always found Mr. Mason's views stimulating. I did not say that I always agreed with them.