Former MP for Southwark Peckham
I wish to enlarge on the point that I made in my intervention. There is a real fear that what has been described as a very small Bill could have far more serious implications than the right hon. Gentleman envisages. In this context, I should declare an interest as a Member sponsored by USDAW. I fear that the extension of Sunday trading could make serious incursions into family life. There...
I have no doubt that my hon. Friend the Member for Bradford, South (Mr. Torney) could even catch a trout in a garden centre on a Sunday. I was developing the point that this very small Bill could have much wider implications than the promoter suggested. As I instanced in an intervention to him, there has over the past decade been a great change in the pattern of retail distribution, with an...
I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I agree with his point. That is why I am opposed to the measure. If it were made legitimate for a greater number of articles to be sold on Sunday, it would be all the more difficult for USDAW to defend the sort of case that my hon. Friend has mentioned. It would also make it all the more difficult for USDAW to carry out what I consider to be a most...
I agree with my hon. Friend, and his criticisms should not be applied only to the present Government. Ever since the Gowers report, successive Governments have dodged the question. We are all aware of the anomalies, but they are used as an argument for legislation to enable even more anomalies to be created. I agree that there is a case for Government intervention. The Home Secretary's reply...
The right hon. Gentleman said that the Bill applied only to garden centres. However, he will be aware that there has been a great switch to hypermarkets and that the majority of them have large garden centres that deal not only in horticultural supplies, but in lawn mowers, greenhouses and a host of articles. If the Bill is enacted, the hypermarkets will, in self-defence, want to open their...
asked the Secretary of State for Transport if, in view of the general worsening of the structural condition of roads, he proposes to increase the road maintenance budget to meet this situation.
Is the hon. and learned Gentleman aware that the County Surveyors' Society stated in its recent report "Transport in the 80s": The increase in the need for patching and surface dressing indicates that there is a general worsening of the structural condition of roads"? Will the Secretary of State therefore consider increasing the budget for non-motorway roads, the maintenance budget of which...
I, too, should declare an interest, having been a member of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers for 47 years, and I am a sponsored Member of Parliament. However, I also have a knowledge of the other side of the fence, having been a director of a large co-operative society for many years and vice-chairman of the national wages board of the co-operative movement. I rise to...
