Mr Alan Clark: rose—
Mr Alan Clark: Will the hon. Gentleman give way for just half a second?
Mr Alan Clark: The hon. Gentleman said that the Government were considering the argument. Why cannot the Minister share the arguments, pro and con, with the House? I should have thought that the whole matter could be settled in a matter of hours.
Mr Alan Clark: I join in the tributes to the hon. Member for Lewes (Mr. Baker), who has a good record on this topic. I always listen to the hon. Member for Newport, West (Mr. Flynn) with interest and enjoy his contributions, even when they relate to subjects that we are not allowed to talk about or expand on in the Chamber. I was interested to hear that his comments today were founded on personal and...
Mr Alan Clark: I intervene to clarify for the record that it was after I had left the Ministry of Defence that the number of experiments trebled. As the hon. Gentleman put it, it might have sounded as though they increased during my period of tenure. While I was there, I did my level best to keep them to an absolute minimum.
Mr Alan Clark: rose—
Mr Alan Clark: My hon. Friend's remarks are making me extremely concerned. His argument is essentially populist. There is strong competition to supply what it is thought people want and to titivate them and attract their attention by various means. However, the business of the BBC has always been to present the truth, the facts and objective commentary—to inform and to educate. It is a fact of life that...
Mr Alan Clark: I congratulate the hon. Member for Rotherham (Mr. MacShane) on making his case, and also on the restraint, in several senses, that he showed in developing that case. Specifically, he made no reference—he might have some acquaintance with or memory of them—to the complexities and, in a literary sense, corruptions of the career structure inside that enormous and—as he eloquently described...
Mr Alan Clark: Has the DTI made any estimate of the number of British jobs supported or the amount of foreign currency earned over, say, the period since the hon. Member for Leyton and Wanstead (Mr. Cohen) came into the House, when he has criticised the ECGD?
Mr Alan Clark: I congratulate the hon. Member for Poplar and Canning Town (Mr. Fitzpatrick). His presentation of the argument, with which I disagree except for his strictures on the channel tunnel, was admirable and beautifully structured. However, this debate has seen the House at its most facile. It has consisted almost entirely of a series of clichés and trite remarks about the strategic plan, the need...
Mr Alan Clark: First, the hon. Gentleman is completely wrong to say that I attended the debate only briefly. I was present for virtually the entire debate. If the hon. Gentleman was there, he will have heard what I said. Secondly, I made none of the points that he identified with the Conservative party. I said exactly the reverse and many of his colleagues praised my speech. I do not know whether or not the...
Mr Alan Clark: Is not the most effective way of reducing the prison population not to prosecute wrongdoing? Is the right hon. Gentleman satisfied with the application of discretionary powers by the Metropolitan police in that respect? What input does his Department have on that application?
Mr Alan Clark: The key question is the judgment of what is "of historical importance". The problem is that, almost invariably, that judgment is made by civil servants—although, laughably, Ministers may occasionally try to get something taken out to protect their political reputation. For a historian, the really obstructive thing is when civil servants, to defend their reputation as administrators or...
Mr Alan Clark: In a safe at the Ministry of Defence there will probably be found a copy of the first defence review of the past decade, which I wrote. Without wishing to emulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Henley (Mr. Heseltine), who takes every opportunity to claim authorship for, and enthusiasm concerning, the millennium dome, I wish to tell the House that, were I to place a copy of my review in...
Mr Alan Clark: Indeed; I have already applauded him, but perhaps that was before the Under-Secretary came into the Chamber. Unless the Prime Minister exercises his authority over the decisions and the counter-pressures that the Treasury will apply to our defence policy, the time will come—perhaps sooner than is comfortable for him—when he no longer has the muscle when he needs it to back up the posture...
Mr Alan Clark: It is certainly an experience to follow, and to listen to, the hon. Member for Glasgow, Kelvin (Mr. Galloway). Plainly, he has not had implanted in his skull one of those electrodes programmed by the Minister without Portfolio and Mr. Alastair Campbell to which the hon. Member for Hackney, South and Shoreditch (Mr. Sedgemore) attributes the brain power of every one of the hon. Ladies on the...
Mr Alan Clark: The Minister cited the average term served in Northern Ireland. In putting the situation into the context of public indignation, which is very relevant, it is fairer to take the average served in mainland Britain. I do not know for certain—he could discuss it with his right hon. Friend the Home Secretary—but I believe that the average term actually served for criminal murder is between...
Mr Alan Clark: I am most grateful to the Minister for giving way a second time. Can he really tell the House that nowhere in all the papers attaching to this case is there mentioned any reference to the political aspect of a possible decision?
Mr Alan Clark: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way so early in his speech, to which I am listening with great attention. When he draws the attention of the House to the fact that the guardsmen have already served six years in gaol, we must remember that that is longer than the average time served in gaol by common murderers—not by terrorists—who are sentenced to life imprisonment. With...
Mr Alan Clark: Why is the Secretary of State so protective of Mr. Davis? It is a matter of public record that he behaved in an improper way at least twice. Is it not a fact that GTech, a partial shareholder in Camelot, was twice subject to a federal investigation on account of its Mafia connections? If the Secretary of State can get past the officials who advised his predecessor to give Camelot the...
