Bill Cash: It is with a sense of awe of this great Parliament and its history that I make my maiden speech in this debate. I shall try, as far as possible, to be non-controversial. I should like first to congratulate the hon. Member for Cynon Valley (Mrs. Clwyd) on her excellent maiden speech. It had not been my original intention first to address the House until some time after my election, but the...
Bill Cash: When will the House have an opportunity to debate the British Telecom licence which we understand was recently laid before the House?
Bill Cash: Is it not true that this year 850,000 people have been taken out of tax? Should not my hon. Friend refer to that fact, not just to his recommendations for the next few years? Should he not refer also to what has been done in the Budget?
Bill Cash: Can my right hon. and learned Friend confirm that there are a number of cases before magistrates' courts that are being unnecessarily held up? Will he be good enough to take such action as is necessary to speed things up?
Bill Cash: The reason why it is important that we insist upon a ballot for the miners and the reason why this case has occurred vis-a-vis the local authoritites is that the miners and the lcoal authorities have used their powers irresponsibly.
Bill Cash: Will my hon. Friend concede that there is no basis for using moneys under section 137 for the benefit of, for example, a miners' strike fund, which is being contemplated in Stafford at the moment?
Bill Cash: I shall be brief as time marches on. Since 1945 our economy, in common with that of many other countries, has undergone deep-seated change. What the Labour Government thought was desirable in the years immediately following the second world war has proved to be increasingly irrelevant to the requirements of running a country in the latter part of the 20th century. One need look only at the...
Bill Cash: For this year alone the estimated loss to the economy is about £1·65 billion. The miners' blackmail cannot be allowed to succeed when so many of the lower paid need more of our national resources. The strike is not only damaging to the economy, but selfish and unreasonable. We will not and must not give in. The motion suggests that the Government's economic, industrial and employment...
Bill Cash: The economy will be judged not by what we say about it but by its performance. The words "output" and "productivity" do not merely mean producing things, nor just a return on capital or labour. They contain elements of all those but require the added yardstick of efficiency and effectiveness. In addition, innovation, competition, marketing, advertising, production engineering, quality control...
Bill Cash: The hon. Gentleman refers to Galileo, but in that instance it did not matter whether he was right. Indulging in the act of creation matters very much indeed.
Bill Cash: Apart from the natural revulsion which I share with every person with whom I have discussed these developments, I have neither seen nor heard any evidence to suggest that anyone has the faintest idea where they will lead or what condition of life is in prospect for those who are selected for survival or those who are born of such persons. This is experimentation gone mad. Why 14 days? Upon...
Bill Cash: rose—
Bill Cash: rose—
Bill Cash: Has the right hon. Gentleman accurately described what Lord Young said the other day? Did he not in fact say that it was only when young people refuse to take jobs or training that they would perhaps not get supplementary benefit? Will he please answer that question?
Bill Cash: I beg to ask leave to present a petition signed by residents of the Stafford constituency in response to the Government's request for comments on the Warnock report. I totally agree with the contents of the petition, as I said in the debate on the Warnock report. The petition prays that the House of Commons will take immediate steps to enact legislation which forbids any proceeding which...
Bill Cash: Will my right hon. Friend explain why only 1·2 million tonnes are being released from the European intervention stocks, n view of the cost of keeping it there, when I was told by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the other day that 10 million tonnes are currently in surplus in intervention stocks?
Bill Cash: The first words in the Bill are For the purpose of promoting enterprise and employment". That is the object to which the Bill is directed and to which the Government are committed. Rapidly changing technology is bringing with it a significant change in the nature of employment. As in other countries in the industrialised world, including Socialist countries such as France and Spain, the...
Bill Cash: In those days, the economic and fiscal environment for enterprise enabled small businesses—they were all small businesses then — to grow and flourish. Of course, there were problems. The social conditions of those working in many of the new businesses were often appalling. That had to be put right, and our generation will not allow such problems to recur. However, we must continue to...
Bill Cash: Will my right hon. and learned Friend assure the House that, as the strike peters to an end, if and when violence increases in certain areas within the coal mining areas, the most vigorous action will be taken to ensure that the public are protected and that the cases that are brought before the courts are dealt with as quickly as possible?
Bill Cash: Does the hon. Lady admit that the research that has so far been conducted on the removal of abnormalities and congenital defects is not sufficiently proved and that the entire matter is covered with ifs, buts and maybes?