Nicholas Winterton: Labour Members have not rushed back.
Nicholas Winterton: I am most grateful to you, Mr. Speaker and I support the comments of my hon. Friend the Member for South Staffordshire (Sir Patrick Cormack). As a Conservative who in this House has consistently supported the mining industry, may I ask the Secretary of State how much he believes that clean coal technology can contribute to the security of energy supplies in this country? We have so much coal...
Nicholas Winterton: I clearly declare an interest: I am a long-time supporter of the Campaign for Real Ale, and I was the chairman of CAMRA (Real Ale) Investments, a little company that CAMRA formed. Why, despite all the evidence that pubs are closing and brewers are finding it increasingly difficult to survive, are the Government further increasing the tax on beer, a traditional British drink that is already...
Nicholas Winterton: I am grateful to the Minister for seeking to respond to my direct questions to the Treasury Bench. Will she not accept that one of the reasons that unemployment has not increased, as many feared, is because the Government have sustained the public sector, and a lot of unemployment has still occurred in the manufacturing and private sector? That the Government have sustained employment in the...
Nicholas Winterton: Will the hon. Lady respond to the serious and growing problems of rural areas, such as the hill country to the east of Macclesfield, where there is no public transport? How are people expected to live and have a proper standard of life if they have to pay more for transport, their allowances are frozen and they are not getting any increase in their wages? How can they pay?
Nicholas Winterton: I shall be brief, but I want to put a question to the two Ministers on the Treasury Bench.
Nicholas Winterton: I am amazed that there is not a single Labour Back Bencher in the Chamber for the Second Reading of a very important Finance Bill. This country is burdened with the greatest debt in its history. I am a long-serving Member of this House, and I come from a business background. In my view, the budget deficit is unsustainable. The Budget contains very few measures that will reduce it in a...
Nicholas Winterton: I do not think that I need respond to my hon. Friend, who has made the point very clearly. I agree with everything that he said. I believe that we are owed a response, because so many serious economists, as well as commentators on the economy of this country and on Government policy, are deeply concerned. We do not want to worsen the recession that we have had, but neither do we want to fall...
Nicholas Winterton: I am happy to put this question to my hon. Friend, but if he is unable to answer it, I intend to try to catch your eye, Mr. Deputy Speaker, to ask a single question of those on the Treasury Bench. Is my hon. Friend worried that the Budget does very little to reduce the Budget deficit? Unless we reduce our indebtedness in this country, the money markets are going to lose confidence in our...
Nicholas Winterton: My hon. Friend could describe the situation even more clearly. The Government believe in continuing to fund the public sector-that is their policy-but are destroying the private manufacturing commercial sector that could fill in that black hole by funding public services.
Nicholas Winterton: My hon. Friend rather quickly passed over the problems of rural communities and farming. I believe that he was referring, to an extent, to the increase in hydrocarbon taxes. Is he aware that in many rural communities there is little or no public transport and so people, in many cases those on low wages, including pensioners, cannot lead a reasonable standard of life if they do not use a car?...
Nicholas Winterton: The hon. Gentleman has just talked about the amount that individual first-time buyers might need to put down to obtain a mortgage from a bank or building society. However, I hope he will accept that part of the problem in this country was that we were giving people too much money to buy houses with. In some cases Northern Rock was giving people 125 per cent. of the capital value. That surely...
Nicholas Winterton: My right hon. Friend has just mentioned the imminent increase in national insurance, although it is not part of the Finance Bill. Surely, however, that must be part of our debate, because it will affect employment in manufacturing and commerce. At Prime Minister's questions today, the Prime Minister made great play saying that the increase was necessary to provide for education and the health...
Nicholas Winterton: Speaking in this House as a Conservative and Unionist, may I ask whether the Secretary of State agrees that Scotland's part of the Union has been very beneficial to Scotland, not least in respect of employment?
Nicholas Winterton: I declare an interest as an honorary vice-president of the Royal College of Midwives.
Nicholas Winterton: I am going to deliver. Does the Secretary of State accept that a safe, successful and enjoyable birth is what every woman craves? Does he further accept that midwives are absolutely critical to the care given to a pregnant woman, not just before pregnancy, but during delivery and post-natally? Will he ensure that there are sufficient midwives to provide that quality of service?
Nicholas Winterton: My constituent!
Nicholas Winterton: I am delighted to follow the right hon. Member for Rother Valley (Mr. Barron), who spoke with great passion about his constituency; as he knows, there is no better time to do that than just before a general election. I listened with care to what he said. He and I have quite a lot in common. He supported the mining industry, and when my colleague, Lord Heseltine, who was then in this House,...
Nicholas Winterton: Hold on: I know what my hon. Friend is going to say. He, too, was one of those 25 Conservative Members of Parliament, and I commend him for the support that he gave to the coal industry, along with myself and others on the Government side of the House, as it was then. Perhaps the right hon. Member for Rother Valley will not particularly commend me for saying this, but the Union of Democratic...
Nicholas Winterton: The hon. Gentleman makes his position and that of his party very clear. He will accept, however, that the present Government and my party disagree with him on this. We believe that a replacement for Trident is essential to the future security and defence of our country. That means, of course, that there are agreements across the Dispatch Box between Her Majesty's Opposition and the Government...
