Business of the House

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 11:34 am on 4 June 2009.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Alan Duncan Alan Duncan Shadow Leader of the House of Commons 11:34, 4 June 2009

I thank the Leader of the House for giving us the forthcoming business.

Although we recognise that the Government rather seem to have some other priorities at the moment, may I gently remind the right hon. and learned Lady that a Government are for governing? Will she therefore give us a statement on the whereabouts of the draft legislative programme? Last year it was published on 14 May, but so far this year there is no sign of it. Will she confirm that the concept of publishing the legislation in advance has been quietly scrapped, or is it perhaps just the case that this Government have run out of steam and have nothing left to offer?

Similarly, may we have a statement on the Business Secretary's Postal Services Bill? It received a surprise—perhaps we could call it emergency—First Reading in this place on 21 May, only a day after its Third Reading in another place. Then we were given to understand from reports in the media that certain Cabinet Ministers—I am sure that neither the Labour Chief Whip nor the right hon. and learned Lady is among them—regard the Bill as "totally bonkers". Now we learn from her statement that no Second Reading is planned in the next fortnight. Can she tell the House when that is going to happen?

May we have an urgent statement from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform on the fate of Vauxhall and the jobs of more than 5,000 workers, which hang in the balance? There was a great flurry of activity on our TV screens earlier this week by the Business Secretary, who assured us about the future of the company. Yet while he has chosen not to give Parliament an update, reports today suggest that the Luton plant has now been classified as "at risk" by trade unions. At the risk of sounding churlish, may I point out that over the past 24 hours the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has seemed rather more interested in saving the Prime Minister's job than the jobs of British car workers. May we have a statement on that delicate situation as it affects the car industry in the United Kingdom?

On the subject of unemployment, may we have a statement from the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on premium line telephone costs for Jobcentre Plus? As we have all feared, the number of people out of work has been steadily increasing over the past few months, but the Government are not making it any easier for those who are looking for work. They are being charged to dial in, hang on for ages and then often just get cut off. It ends up costing them a lot of money just to have an initial conversation on the phone. How does the right hon. and learned Lady justify charging people who have little income high rates—or even at all—for seeking advice on getting a job, particularly in the depths of one of the deepest recessions the country has seen?

May I request yet again an urgent debate on the Government's handling of compensation for those who lost out from Equitable Life, another group of people whom the Government have so shamefully ignored? Twenty years ago, the then shadow Trade and Industry Secretary, who now happens to be Prime Minister, stood at this very Dispatch Box and spoke about Barlow Clowes and the ombudsman's report on that. He condemned the

"fecklessness, gullibility and incompetence of the Government who, for months and years, ignored all the warnings".—[ Hansard, 19 December 1989; Vol. 164, c. 204-5.]

How can the Government dishonour their obligations to Equitable Life policyholders when their stance in Opposition was so different on such a similar issue?

Will the Leader of the House consider a debate on countries in the middle east and around that region that are at risk of failure, such as Somalia and particularly Yemen? I and many others fear that there is, once again, a danger of Yemen dividing between north and south and spreading instability in the area.

May we also have a debate on educational standards? It is noticeable in the public exchange of letters between Hazel Blears and the Prime Minister that neither makes use of that basic staple of punctuation, the full stop. As one of Tony Blair's former speech writers said in The Times today,

"New Labour began with no verbs and it ends with no punctuation."

Is that another tacit admission that the Government have ground to a complete full stop?

Finally, may I say on this day that whatever our political differences and persuasions—and whatever difficulties Parliament has been experiencing—for the sake of democracy, let us join together across the Chamber in urging everyone to get out and vote, and to do it for positive reasons for a positive agenda for the future of the country?