Former MP for Gloucestershire West
Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that it is outrageous for members of the Opposition to prey on people's fears over the matter, pretending that they have a monopoly of concern for public health? It is blatant political opportunism. No one has an interest in trying to cover up the truth. Will my right hon. and learned Friend confirm again that there have been substantial...
If ever I heard a speech in which a Labour Member has cried for the return of the nanny state, the speech of the hon. Member for Pendle (Mr. Prentice) was it. It is a cry for ever more regulation and ever more cost. I only hope that he cleared that speech with the shadow Chancellor. There is absolutely no doubt that the Labour party has demonstrated in this debate that it cares nothing for...
Dream on. I am happy for the hon. Member for Glanford and Scunthorpe (Mr. Morley) to dream on and to think of better things, but he will be very disappointed. BSE is undoubtedly the biggest crisis that has ever hit the UK food industry. More people and sectors in the industry have been involved in this crisis than in any previous one, and hindsight is a very cheap commodity. We are sick to...
Will my right hon. Friend confirm that it is not, and never has been, his intention to impose VAT on Severn bridge tolls—[Laughter.]—and that, contrary to what the new Labour candidate for Forest of Dean says, it was not the Government's idea, but that of the European Transport Commissioner, who is a former leader of the British Labour party?
As the hon. Member for North Cornwall (Mr. Tyler) said, this is an extremely disagreeable subject to have to debate, but if we do not debate it, the situation will go on for ever. The only reason for having the debate and for introducing a selective cull is to get the ban lifted. I should like a reassurance that the European Community will accept the method of selection that we use, and that...
Exactly. We do not want the Community to move the goalposts. We want it to accept our method of selection and consider lifting the ban. There is no doubt that with the passage of time attitudes towards the selective cull have changed, and not only among farmers. The farmers of Gloucestershire—obviously the ones whom I know the best—were against the selective cull to start with, but now...
My hon. Friend has pinched my next point. I understand that the price of British beef has fallen by 5 per cent.—it may be more; he can correct me if I am wrong—as a result of the import of Irish beef. On the detail of the slaughter, I join other hon. Members in urging my right hon. and learned Friend the Minister that his Department should be as flexible as possible in the execution of...
I thank my right hon. and learned Friend for putting me right on that because that is a weight off my mind. If I made a mistake, I am quite happy to admit it. We want the farmers to co-operate with the scheme, some of which is voluntary. If we expect them to step forward and volunteer to participate in it, we must make the compensation scheme as fair as we possibly can. As I said earlier, we...
