Alan Johnson: I came to praise Jenkins, not to see the report buried. It has been unkindly, indeed scurrilously, said by Tory Members that my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary will try to do both. That is not possible. As President Nixon famously said, "Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it is impossible to get it back in again." As we approach the 21st century, we are having a debate on our...
Alan Johnson: It is a rubbish novel.
Alan Johnson: You have said that three times before.
Alan Johnson: My right hon. Friend will be aware that in the House last night the Conservative Opposition attempted to prevent British workers from being protected by basic minimum standards for hours of work, rest breaks and paid holidays. Will he assure me that the Government will continue to promote fairness in the workplace, thus ensuring that the Conservative party, which opposes the minimum wage and...
Alan Johnson: On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I understand that the hon. Member for Ludlow (Mr. Gill) has registered shareholdings in a company but has not declared that fact in the debate; surely he should have done so at the beginning of his contribution.
Alan Johnson: I speak in this debate more in sorrow than in anger, and as one who argued for many years in the trade union movement—it was not always an easy argument—that the movement should undergo a sea change by moving away from legal immunities and always depending on free collective bargaining, and towards positive rights and minimum standards. I argued that, if we did that in the United Kingdom,...
Alan Johnson: No; there is no time to give way. It is a short debate, and other hon. Members wish to speak. Once again, Conservative Members are spouting their basically unpatriotic argument. They say that the issue is one of burdens on business. An example of a burden on business was the passage of legislation insisting that, every three years, employers had to approach workers to discover whether they...
Alan Johnson: I, too, pay tribute to the hon. Member for Southwark, North and Bermondsey (Mr. Hughes) for initiating the debate and for allowing us to participate. As my hon. Friend the Member for Hull, North (Mr. McNamara) has said, Hull has a long association with Sierra Leone and we are twinned with Freetown. Our constituents have watched with concern the events of the past decade. According to the...
Alan Johnson: My right hon. Friend will be aware that Hull's municipally owned telephone service survived nationalisation in 1911. It also survived privatisation in 1984 because, although it may not be popular with the Director General of Oftel, it is cherished by the local population that it serves. In the light of the Oftel report on Kingston Communications, which was published on Monday, will she...
Alan Johnson: Will my hon. Friend give way?
Alan Johnson: It shows what one can do with a bit of charm and finesse.
Alan Johnson: Like most hon. Members, I have had a record postbag on this issue. Of more than 300 letters, only one has been against the Bill. How many letters has my hon. Friend, as the Bill's promoter, received on this issue?
Alan Johnson: This debate will deal with an issue that is of great concern to the people of Hull. As I discovered this week, however, the issue strikes a chord across the country, particularly in seafaring communities. In this very short debate, I shall try first to make a case for reopening the inquiry into the loss of the Hull trawler the MT Gaul, which disappeared in February 1974 without trace and...
Alan Johnson: My hon. Friend makes a valid point. It is a feature of the documentary that needs to be mentioned. I accept that it is not the responsibility of the Minister, but it is part of the argument for reopening the inquiry. In August 1974, the then Defence Minister Bill Rogers—now Lord Rogers—wrote to the relatives of the crew, saying: I can assure you that the British trawler fleet is not...
Alan Johnson: I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. The people of Hull appreciate the messages of support that they have received from Lowestoft and elsewhere. I appreciate the presence at this late hour of so many hon. Members for this important debate. It will be greatly appreciated by my constituents and others. Hull is used to losing men at sea. As I said in my maiden speech, our men fish the...
Alan Johnson: I have,Mr. Deputy Speaker. I apologise for not having notified you.
Alan Johnson: As this is my maiden speech, before I come to the subject of the debate, I shall follow the tradition of the House by paying tribute to my predecessor, Stuart Randall, who represented Kingston upon Hull, West for 14 years. Although he began his working life as an apprentice electrician, it does credit to his hard work, determination and foresight that he developed an expertise in information...
