Highlands and Islands

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 15 May 1991.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mr Brian Wilson Mr Brian Wilson , Cunninghame North 12:00, 15 May 1991

Why does the Minister give us this line about Nirex? Does he recall being at the Dispatch Box two or three weeks ago, a week before the Secretary of State gave permission for 6,000 test bores in the highlands? Why did the Minister mislead the House—not deliberately, I am sure—on that occasion? Why was not the liaison between Scottish Office Ministers sufficient to ensure that we were told on that occasion that the Secretary of State would overrule what the Minister appeared to be telling the House? Will he confirm that if this goes ahead, there will be 15 train loads of radioactive material trundling through the highlands and much of the rest of Scotland every week? That is a type of highland transport that nobody wants. Will the Minister also comment on the crass hypocrisy of the Secretary of State, who in the early 1980s purported —