Brian Binley: In May 1997 I was elected to Northamptonshire county council, and exactly one year later was handed the shadow finance portfolio and tasked with preparing the Conservative group for county government. On that self-same day, our current Prime Minister was given the immediate task of running our country. There is a bit of a difference between those two tasks, but I was allowed to experience at...
Brian Binley: I understand my hon. Friend's point, but I must refer the answer to the Minister, as I can see no reason other than political advantage. No doubt the Minister will reaffirm his position later, unless he wants to do it now.
Brian Binley: I am sure that we are all grateful to the Minister for that fine explanation. My thoughts remain as before, however. As well as the uncertainty in local government, there is a growing belief that this Government have lost their appetite for reform. There is no doubt that that is seen in the Government's actions in relation to the review of property values. The Government have prevaricated,...
Brian Binley: The Minister will be taking up my time. Will he be kind enough to wait, as he will have another chance to speak? Of course the Government can make such a statement by setting the settlement against overall inflation of 2.7 per cent., but that is a confidence trick, which looks foolish when measured against public sector inflation well in excess of 45 per cent. during the eight years that this...
Brian Binley: Will the hon. Lady give way?
Brian Binley: The hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable), I think in September, said that if there were two full-time earners in the house, they would pay more council tax. Does the hon. Lady recognise that a sizeable number of two-earner households are young married people, and will she therefore confirm that the Liberal proposals will mean that they will pay more in local income tax?
Brian Binley: If the hon. Lady gives way, I will explain.
Brian Binley: rose—
Brian Binley: Will the Minister give way?
Brian Binley: I thank the Minister for his kindness in giving way. I am in the business—or at least my business is in the business—of data collection, databases and related matters, and I can tell him that the average database degrades at a rate of 15 per cent. per year compound. Given that, does he accept that the data collected over the past two years will be almost totally useless?
Brian Binley: What recent assessment he has made of the performance of the UK economy.
Brian Binley: Yesterday, Mr. Mervyn King was reported as saying, "The business cycle has not been abolished". He asked, "Will the next 10 years be as nice as the last?" His answer was, "That seems unlikely." Will the Chancellor be kind to me and say whether he agrees or disagrees with those remarks?
Brian Binley: As you requested, Sir Nicholas, I shall reduce my speech by half. I hope that that will please you for future occasions. I pay tribute to Chris Bryant, the hon. Member for Rhondda. I found his words most disturbing and moving. I had not known of those sorts of activities. He does a great favour to the world in bringing them to our attention in this debate and I thank him. You will know, Sir...
Brian Binley: I am very sorry and thank you for that guidance, Sir Nicholas. My hon. Friend the Member for Southend, West (Mr. Amess), who went with me to New York and wowed a crowd of 20,000 people with his speech, astounded me on that occasion and has done so again. I was lucky to accompany him and I spent four days with the organisers of that rally and with many of their supporters. I got to know them...
Brian Binley: I thank my hon. Friend for bringing that to my attention. I did not know of that particular incident, but it is in keeping with many of the slogans being paraded throughout Iran, and we should take note of the intent behind them. Let me return to the point that I was making; Israel considered the Iranian situation to be the doomsday scenario. What do the American intelligence people think...
Brian Binley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether the closure of St. John's Secure Unit in Tiffield, Northamptonshire would necessitate repayment to the Treasury by Northamptonshire county council of the grant given by the Department of Health for its construction.
Brian Binley: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he expects the Audit Commission to publish the final key lines of inquiry for the corporate assessment of councils under the comprehensive performance assessment process.
Brian Binley: As you know, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I am new to this House. I have been told that the new Minister, who is currently leaning backwards over the Front Bench, is a good guy, that he will be all right and that he can be relied on. [Interruption.] If he will be kind enough to listen, I should like to point out that I am really sorry that his predecessor left him in this mess. It seems that this good...
Brian Binley: Does the hon. Gentleman not think the same thing about the Labour party now that it is in office?
Brian Binley: Mr. Deputy Prime Minister, three weeks ago the Prime Minister was asked to meet a delegation about the underfunding of police in Northamptonshire, which has continued for a considerable number of years. He did not answer. My grandmother always said, "Never trust a man who doesn't give a straight answer." [Interruption.]