Malcolm Chisholm: Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for calling me at such an early stage. There are many things that I could say about Ron Brown, my predecessor, but I shall confine my self to saying that he knew the importance of class politics, when deceiving or joking voices prattle on about a classless society. He was, of course, officially the hon. Member for Edinburgh, Leith, a conjunction of places that...
Malcolm Chisholm: I am interested in the Bill from the point of view of low-income debtors. I have been influenced by the strongly expressed views of people in the Leith constituency who advise them. Many such debtors have been dragged unavoidably into the use of expensive credit for everyday living expenses. Some of their debts might be called state sanctioned debts because they pay the price of Government...
Malcolm Chisholm: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the likely timetable for hospital opt-outs in Scotland.
Malcolm Chisholm: The Minister seeks to perpetuate the fiction that opt-out hospitals in Scotland arise out of demand from hospitals and local communities. As everybody knows, the policy of opt-out hospitals has been imposed on the people of Scotland, against their wishes, by the Scottish Office. A timetable for that imposition exists within the Scottish Office. Is not it true that most hospitals in Edinburgh,...
Malcolm Chisholm: The problem is encapsulated in the word "flexibility". We are already seeing flexibility in the way the provisions are interpreted. I have several examples in Edinburgh of people being harassed. If a woman says that she is frightened by the threat of violence, will that be acceptable? Are there any other exemptions? The Minister's figure of 3 per cent. suggests that there are many other...
Malcolm Chisholm: Is the Government's support for the European fighter aircraft dependent on the continued involvement of the Spanish and Italian Governments? If those Governments should withdraw their support, what would the Government's view then be? Does the Secretary of State agree that, in the longest recession for 60 years, it is unthinkable that 40,000 defence workers should be thrown on to the dole?...
Malcolm Chisholm: Does my hon. Friend think that infertile couples can still get infertility treatment under the national health service now that hospitals are opting out?
Malcolm Chisholm: Does the Minister realise that in five wards in my constituency within the Lothian region, male unemployment is officially between 21 and 23 per cent? Female unemployment would be as high, if it were properly calculated. Does he realise that the official unemployment figure is 4,900, and that if it were calculated in the same way as in 1979 the figure would be 6,900? Finally, when will the...
Malcolm Chisholm: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action he proposes to take with regard to the primary-purpose rule.
Malcolm Chisholm: The primary-purpose rule has always been unjust, arbitrary and morally indenfensible. As Europe has finally made a nonsense of it, will the Minister undertake to scrap it unconditionally—and not with the proviso that couples must stay together for a further four years at threat of deportation? That would be an outrageous attack on the rights of women who are treated intolerably by their...
Malcolm Chisholm: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 3 November.
Malcolm Chisholm: Is the Prime Minister aware of a report by Age Concern, trailed in this morning's newspapers, which reveals that 750,000 elderly people are at risk of developing hypothermia this winter? Now that the Government have launched a winter warmth telephone line, what reply will be given to the large numbers of people requiring help with fuel costs and insulation? The Prime Minister has spent £7·6...
Malcolm Chisholm: To ask the President of the Board of Trade what estimate he has made of the effect of the pit closure programme on the balance of payments deficit.
Malcolm Chisholm: Is the Minister aware that we already import 20 million tonnes of foreign coal, some mined by child labour in Colombia, and that the position will get worse if we go ahead with pit closures? Is he further aware that all independent experts—and the Minister's Department in Energy Paper 59—suggest that there will be massive imports of gas if the dash for gas continues? Is he aware that that...
Malcolm Chisholm: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons from Pakistan sought to enter the United Kingdom as visitors in the last year; and how many were refused entry.
Malcolm Chisholm: That is a high refusal rate. Why are 8·5 per cent. of visitors to this country from the black Commonwealth, while 54 per cent. of refusals are from those same countries? Does the Minister realise that, once people have been refused they will probably never be able to enter because it is marked in their passports? Does he accept that the situation will get much worse if appeal rights are...
Malcolm Chisholm: Given that the outturn figure for health expenditure this year is £3·64 billion and that the figure announced for next year is £3·75 billion, is it not true to say that the increase in cash terms is barely 3 per cent.? Surely the Secretary of State realises that that is an inadequate figure which does not even cover general inflation, and totally ignores the facts that medical inflation...
Malcolm Chisholm: I should like primarily to address water privatisation, but I cannot forgo commenting on the Secretary of State for Scotland's amazing interview at the weekend in which he said that decentralisation of power to a Scottish Parliament was quite unnecessary as it was to be decentralised to new local authorities instead. As everybody knows, power has been drained from Scottish local authorities...
Malcolm Chisholm: Does my hon. Friend accept that article 107 makes it absolutely clear that the European central bank will not take instructions from ECOFIN or any similar body? On the point that article 2 would fit well in a Labour manifesto, article 2 explicitly says that it is subordinate to article 3. I wonder why my hon. Friend is focusing on article 2 rather than article 3. Article 3 makes it clear...
Malcolm Chisholm: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what plans she has for the provision of after-school child care.
