David Davis: I am grateful to you, Mr. Speaker, for calling me to make my maiden speech so early in the debate. I am also grateful for the compliments on my speech, however premature. I pray the indulgence of the House to speak briefly about my constituency and to pay proper tribute to my predecessor in Boothferry. The constituency of Boothferry encompasses the Yorkshire wolds and extends down to the...
David Davis: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the growth of United Kingdom manufactured exports since 1981.
David Davis: Does my right hon. Friend agree that that welcome growth in exports is due largely to the fact that the growth in unit wage costs in the United Kingdom has performed well and is now expected to perform better than the majority of other industrial nations? In the light of that, will my right hon. Friend remind the House of the findings of the CBI report on exports?
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make available more resources to enable schools from different religious backgrounds to undertake joint educational projects; and if he will make a statement.
David Davis: I am sure that all hon. Members will join me in welcoming the previous decision and hoping that the future will see more resources allocated. Already too many children grow up in an atmosphere of prejudice in Northern Ireland and become fuel and recruits for terrorist organisations. If the problems of Northern Ireland are to be solved, is it not necessary to find ways to increase contact...
David Davis: I shall be brief and will address my remarks to the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton (Mr. Heffer), in view of his last comment. I wanted to speak in the debate because I spent two and a half years in Canada, where the House of Commons is televised. That House is very similar to ours in its rules and procedures. The Canadian experiment is a much better example to study than the House of...
David Davis: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point. That was very much the point that I was trying to summarise. I am a new Member of Parliament and perhaps a naive one, but I have been pleasantly surprised by the extent to which the debate in the House is deliberative rather than emotive and rhetorical and is spontaneous, effective and free-ranging. It seems to me that, rather than...
David Davis: I listened yesterday to the Leader of the Opposition saying that government was about choices. I have listened today to the alternatives being put forward. I have rarely heard such a band of false options and non-existent choices as those being proposed today. Tax cuts are not an alternative to funding the Health Service, except in the dire circumstances of the 1970s when we were mortgaging...
David Davis: I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to limit the provision of rights of registered dockers under the Dock Labour Employment Scheme to the lifetime of those in current employment; to remove from the local and national dock labour boards their responsibilities for recruitment and discipline of registered dock workers, and to provide that, in the absence of a negotiated...
David Davis: Those 27 people are never all present. At most, there will be 18, so the customer pays for 30 per cent. of his work force who do not work. That practice must end as soon as possible. "Ghosting" is the technique whereby dock workers are required to mark people who do not work in the docks. That applies even to non-existent jobs. For example, there is a new cement loading unit at Goole. When...
David Davis: The only safety aspect is whether either one of the dockers falls into the dock. The scheme increases the cost of the industry in competition with Europe. In Rotterdam and Amsterdam, the cost of loading and unloading ships is between £2·50 and £3·50 a tonne. In Britain, it is between £7·50 and £15 a tonne, three to five times as much. It is ludicrous to expect that that will not...
David Davis: I am not aware of having any interest to declare in this matter. I shall shorten what I had intended to say to save time. The net effect of the scheme is the destruction of jobs in Britain. More important, it destroys jobs in the poorest and most difficult areas of Britain. Opposition Members claim that they represent such areas. In 1992, the Single European Act will be implemented....
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received from Her Majesty's Ambassador in Ethiopia on the situation in Eritrea and Tigray and its implications for the United Kingdom's relations with Ethiopia.
David Davis: Will my right hon. Friend tell the House the number of people at risk from famine in Eritrea and Tigray? Does not the appalling situation in those provinces, and the restrictions applied to aid workers by the Mengistu Government, tell us that there should be a much more liberal and less extreme regime in respect of the northern provinces?
David Davis: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he last met the chairman of the Home Grown Cereals Authority; and what matters were discussed.
David Davis: I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. In those discussions did he raise with the HGCA the possibility of the use of that research for low-cost, low-input, limited output varieties that will reduce the technological pressure on the CAP rather than exacerbate them?
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the proposed pilot projects to use electronic monitoring for people on bail will commence; and if he will make a statement.
David Davis: I congratulate my hon. Friend on his humane innovation. Will he reassure the House that there will be no increase in the proportion of people receiving bail under the scheme who are accused of certain crimes of violence for which the scheme may not be appropriate? Will he reassure the House that people who break the terms of their bail under the scheme will be sent back to gaol by the courts?
David Davis: I do not intend to follow the hon. Member for Banff and Buchan (Mr. Salmond) down his antiquated route, as expenditure per head in Scotland is second only to public expenditure in Northern Ireland, with all the troubles that the Province has. His analysis falls on that alone.
David Davis: No, with all due respect, I cannot give way as I have only 10 minutes. This is a Budget for the future, not the past. In cutting the national debt the Chancellor of the Exchequer is cutting tomorrow's taxes and enhancing tomorrow's prospects. It is a Budget for the poor. In reforming national insurance, amending the age allowance and abolishing the earnings rule, the Chancellor is allowing...