Former MP for Redbridge Ilford South
My hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr (Mr. Rooker) has been congratulated on his choice of subject. If it were not for the fact that he was first on the list of hon. Members able to choose their subjects, the debate would not have taken place. I remind the House of my experience when I introduced a Bill to abolish hare coursing and stag hunting. It was blocked by a Conservative...
I am grateful for that intervention. It brings out another facet of this so-called sport. Perhaps the most savage and cruel activity is that of deer and stag hunting. The horror of the chase has been brought out time and again. It finishes either with the beast being savaged by the hounds and probably killed or, as happens in so many instances, swimming out to sea, and probably drowning, in...
From time to time, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Londoners have the opportunity of speaking on subjects that are of interest to them. I think that the House will agree that this opportunity is one that has come very readily to our ears, in that it deals with a number of subjects that are quite fascinating to London and to London Members. Nevertheless, the nub of the Bill is obviously the question that...
There has been a certain expression of disappointment in different parts of the House regarding the inadequacy of the Bill as a major education Bill, which we have been led to believe that it is. I am very disappointed, in that the Bill does little to change the present divisive system in education which gives so much privilege to a section of the community. One must understand the situation...
I would certainly agree with my hon. Friend. I was looking upon that as one way of increasing the number of teachers in the schools, and attacking the sad unemployment which is to be found among teachers at the present time. In conclusion, may I say to the hon. and learned Member for Runcorn (Mr. Carlisle), whom I am very pleased to see in his place—and I hope and feel sure that he will...
I can only tell the hon. Gentleman that throughout the country there are Tory councils which are not taking up and spending this money.
It is money which has been given to them in the rate support grant. I can only quote my own authority. It was given a miserly allocation of £29,000 which is peanuts in terms of a penny rate and yet the authority refused to take it up. I welcome the Bill and I hope that it has a very swift passage.
I congratulate the hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Mr. Beith) on the wide range of his discourse and also on his Second Reading speech on a Bill which has not yet been published. At the same time, I express my surprise that he should have felt that we should not be meeting today but should have had a General Election. Frankly, I do not accept that proposition from him. I fancy that if...
