Mr Ian Stewart: I welcome the opportunity to make a brief contribution to the debate because a company called Herbert Controls and Instruments operates from Letchworth in my constituency. It has a work force of about 300 and manufactures ancillary gauging equipment for the machine tool and related industries. The company's imme- diate future depends largely on the orders which will come in within the next...
Mr Ian Stewart: I wish to speak in support of my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, Acton (Sir G. Young) who moved the amendment with great cogency. There were others in Committee who endeavoured to obtain some more specific comments from the Government about the financial implications of the commitment. I wish to thank the Minister for the letters which he sent me on a number of points. With any structure...
Mr Ian Stewart: I do not quite know how to follow those remarks, so perhaps I had better revert to the introduction by my hon. Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke). Like him, I welcome the expression of intent behind Amendment No. 8, but I am a little concerned about some of the right hon. Lady's remarks in explanation. As she was good enough to listen to me in Committee, she knows of my anxieties...
Mr Ian Stewart: asked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection whether she will make a statement on the latest report of the Price Commission.
Mr Ian Stewart: In the light of the Price Commission report, does the right hon. Lady consider that there is any further scope for restricting price increases by limitations on wholesale or retail margins? Will she say whether her plan for continuing restraint of prices will take into account the danger of promoting unemployment through the erosion of profit margins, caused in many cases by a delay in...
Mr Ian Stewart: I congratulate the hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras, South (Mrs. Jeger) on the eloquent and forceful way in which she has put the case, and I thank her, as did my hon. Friend, for allowing each of us a moment to take part. I have a personal concern in this subject, coming from a medical family, one member of which was on the staff of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, altogether...
Mr Ian Stewart: I rise to speak for the first time on the subject of new towns in this House, having been elected last year as the Member of Parliament for Hitchin. That constituency includes Letchworth, the first of the garden cities, which has had honourable mention from my hon. Friend the Member for Daventry (Mr. Jones). I have a second constituency interest, because until the recent boundary...
Mr Ian Stewart: The Minister seems greatly to have reinforced the point made by the hon. Member for Fife, Central (Mr. Hamilton) about the complete uncertainty in which Parliament has been left as to when, how and under what circumstances it will be able to discuss the consequences of the amendment which has just been agreed. I ask the Minister to take into account the fact that the uncertainty of timing is...
Mr Ian Stewart: The Paymaster-General very properly opened this afternoon's debate with a review of some of the assumptions which the Government have taken into account in preparing the Budget. Indeed, it would be unreal to discuss the Budget apart from the assumptions. It is a measure of the seriousness of our situation that so many hon. Members on both sides of the House have concentrated not on the...
Mr Ian Stewart: I hope that the House will permit me, after some of the more technical comments on the application of value added tax, to turn for a moment to a subject raised by my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Surrey, East (Sir G. Howe), namely, the Government's general economic strategy as it is implied by a proposal of this kind to reduce the rate of value added tax. It is ironic that,...
Mr Ian Stewart: Will the Minister say what is the view of the Council of Development Ministers about the resources available by way of loans through its own funds and through the IMF oil facility for the most seriously affected countries? Does she believe that the provisions made so far, and which were announced by the Chancellor on his return from Washington, are likely to be adequate for the whole of 1975?
Mr Ian Stewart: I am aware of the hour, and I shall endeavour not to test the patience of right hon. and hon. Members. Equally, I hope that they will have sympathy for those of us who do not try to speak too often in this Chamber and who, just because we are not fortunate to be called earlier in the proceedings, might feel inhibited from speaking on subjects about which we feel strongly, when we believe that...
Mr Ian Stewart: For the sake of clarity, may I ask whether the Chief Secretary is willing to give an assurance to the Committee, and to the wider audience which is taking such an interest in this discussion, to the effect that the Government will introduce measures in the spring Finance Bill which will be no less favourable to companies which benefit from the present arrangements, except only if there is a...
Mr Ian Stewart: After the broad sweep of some of the speeches so far I find it a little difficult to move from the general to the particular. Many hon. Members have so far been concerned with the way in which Parliament should react to this type of document, but I want to deal with a specific point. It is timely that the House should consider carefully, in the context of the guidelines and the communication...
Mr Ian Stewart: I am not saying that the document as such achieves any of these objectives. The documents are concerned with subjects such as co-operation on exchange rates and monetary policy. Recently a fundamental change has taken place in international markets which will need to be taken into account not only by the Community as a whole but by all countries within it, including ourselves. This poses a...
Mr Ian Stewart: asked the Secretary of State for Trade if he will take powers to control the volume of air traffic using Luton by designating the airport under the Civil Aviation Act 1971.
Mr Ian Stewart: Is the hon. Gentleman aware that Hertfordshire County Council has withdrawn its representatives from the Luton Airport Consultative Committee because Luton Corporation does not consult?
Mr Ian Stewart: I am grateful for being called to speak in the debate. I come to the House as the first Conservative Member for the Hitchin division for 10 years. I have a considerable sense of responsibility, for two principal reasons. The first is that my immediate predecessor set such a high standard of service to her constituency. She is now the right hon. Member for Hertford and Stevenage (Mrs....
