Mr Ian Stewart: My right hon. Friend has rightly expressed herself cautious about extending the powers of the Commission, which is a non-elected body. In any future discusson of political plans for the European Community, will she be wary of increasing the powers of the European Parliament in relation to finance? Over the years, the Parliament unfortunately seems to have been more interested in increasing...
Mr Ian Stewart: Will my right hon. Friend assure the House that whatever representations may be forthcoming from business, he will not consider reducing interest rates until it is clear that inflationary and monetary pressures are at last abating?
Mr Ian Stewart: We have just heard a remarkable speech from the hon. Member for Dunfermline, East (Mr. Brown). It was remarkable for its almost entire lack of serious content. The House and others will note that the only matter of substance that the hon. Gentleman vouchsafed about Labour party policy in this important Budget debate was that it was Labour policy to impose a tax on the payroll of British...
Mr Ian Stewart: If the exchange rate for sterling could be kept more stable against European currencies, I concede that that would be an advantage. It remains an open question whether it will be consistent with the proper conduct of our domestic monetary and economic policy for sterling to belong to the exchange rate mechanism. However, I am willing to contemplate that possibility and it is only sensible to...
Mr Ian Stewart: The speech of my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Feltham arid Heston (Mr. Ground) was important, because it raised for the first time some of the Bill's practical implications. I am very sympathetic—I may go so far as to say extremely sympathetic—to the concept that led my hon. Friends the Members for Harrow, West (Mr. Dykes) arid for Ruislip-Northwood (Mr. Wilkinson) to introduce...
Mr Ian Stewart: My hon. Friend must be a mind-reader: I was coming to that point. We already have procedures to allow the listing of individual buildings, and the designation of groups of buildings as a conservation area. The Bill, I believe, would create, if not a universal urban listed-building or conservation-area designation, at least the presumption of a third tier, which could be invoked to prevent or...
Mr Ian Stewart: I thank my hon. and learned Friend for his helpful intervention. It seems to me almost inevitable that such a concept will develop if the Bill is enacted, and arguably it should do so regardless. My constituents seem much more concerned about planning applications nowadays: they worry not only about what may appear on a particular site, but about the possible loss of what they regard as an...
Mr Ian Stewart: I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer, and I am sure that he will have strong support from Conservative Members in making sure that the campaign against inflation is maintained for as long as it need be. Will my right hon. Friend emphasise that an increase in mortgage rates is not the same as an increase in the rate of inflation? In that respect in particular, the retail prices index...
Mr Ian Stewart: My hon. Friend has recently reviewed the major naval procurement programme of the 1980s. Will he reflect on the fact that the two major operational commitments during that period were the battle in the south Atlantic and, more recently, the Armilla patrol's participation in the affairs of the Gulf war? When considering the procurement of these further ships, especially frigates, in the 1990s,...
Mr Ian Stewart: On behalf of many of my constituents and no doubt those of other hon. Members, I thank the Secretary of State for his full statement and the handsome scheme of recompense that he has announced this afternoon. No doubt it will be welcomed up and down the country. When the Secretary of State reflects on the lessons to be learned from this sorry story, will he take it from me that it did not...
Mr Ian Stewart: Does my right hon. Friend accept that her robust but judicious contribution at Strasbourg is very welcome on this side of the House, particularly the fact that she has demonstrated once again that the British Government are more interested in Euro-do than Euro-speak? As for the contentious matter of the European monetary system, did my right hon. Friend have an opportunity to point out to...
Mr Ian Stewart: Conservative Members welcome the remark by our right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to his NATO colleagues—representing the United States and our European allies—that we should "gang warily" with the redeployment and reduction of forces in Europe. Ought not any move that we make in that direction be agreed thoroughly with our NATO colleagues rather than being a one-off on the part of...
Mr Ian Stewart: Does my right hon. Friend agree that it would not have been possible to allocate considerable extra resources to priority areas of expenditure, and at the same time to exercise general constraint over total public expenditure, had it not been for the saving of debt interest, which is the direct result of responsible budgets over many years? Will he not hesitate —in support of tight monetary...
Mr Ian Stewart: No, Sir.
Mr Ian Stewart: Mr. Wallace was given assurances that he would not be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act if he gave evidence to the Terry and Hughes inquiries. No matter how many questions the hon. Gentleman asks, no evidence has been found in many thorough investigations of the case to substantiate the allegations which Mr. Wallace has made over many years.
Mr Ian Stewart: In the time that is available I shall endeavour to respond to as many as possible of the points made in the debate. Some hon. Members have asked specific and technical questions of some detail and I shall respond in writing if I do not have time fully to reply to them now.
Mr Ian Stewart: That is an interesting comment and I shall consider it when reading the Official Report of the debate. I was glad to hear the general welcome from the Opposition, from my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne (Mr. Gow), from the hon. and learned Member for Montgomery (Mr. Carlile) and from other hon. Members for the order. I have been asked about the time that the order has taken. Although...
Mr Ian Stewart: The hon. Gentleman is referring to the extension of the televising arrangements to those outside Northern Ireland and those outside the United Kingdom. Those provisions are still some way off and there are no current proposals for their implementation. I was referring to the extension of the televising of evidence—it was described as a dangerous extension—to those witnesses in fear....
Mr Ian Stewart: The hon. Gentleman will have to ask my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary about that. When we considered the DNA provisions in the order for our purposes in the light of present scientific knowledge, we concluded that mouth swabs did not involve scraping or unwarranted intrusion into intimate orifices of the body and could be done simply and in a matter of seconds from between the lip and...
Mr Ian Stewart: I beg to move, That the draft Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989, which was laid before this House on 15th June, be approved. The purpose of the order is to reform the law relating to the investigation and detection of crime, and to revise the law on evidence. In both structure and content, it is closely in line with the provisions already enacted and being...
