Mr Harold McCusker: I am conscious of the opportunity which you have given me, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and conscious of a lack of polish and experience in these affairs. I beg your indulgence and the indulgence of hon. Members if I transgress from the customs and practices of the House. I immediately pay tribute to my predecessor, Mr. Jack Maginnis, who had represented Armagh for 15 years. He was an honest and...
Mr Harold McCusker: As the Member in whose constituency this disaster occurred, may I associate myself with the expressions of sympathy which have come from the two Front Benches Will not the right hon. Gentleman accept that this tragedy represents a situation which has concerned many of us in Northern Ireland regarding the breakdown in liaison and communication which seems frequently to occur between the Army...
Mr Harold McCusker: My constituency is largely agricultural. I have the disadvantage of not being a farmer and of having no agricultural experience. It therefore behoves me to apply myself as diligently as I can to the problems of my constituents. I was surprised to hear the Minister say that the scheme had obtained a general welcome. County Armagh egg producers do not welcome it, perhaps for reasons which...
Mr Harold McCusker: asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what action he has taken, since the shooting incidents at Shaw's Lake, to ensure adequate liaison and communication between the various branches of the security forces.
Mr Harold McCusker: I fully accept the explanation that the right hon. Gentleman gave the House about the incident. I in no way criticise the security forces. However, will the right hon. Gentleman publicly acknowledge that I have given him other examples of a breakdown in liaison? How can he reconcile them with an answer, given me by his hon. Friend the Minister of State, that there is no need for...
Mr Harold McCusker: The hon. Gentleman must acknowledge that some members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary are guarding the life of the hon. Member for Belfast, West (Mr. Fitt). The vast majority of those members of the RUC that you are maligning are still members of the RUC. Those men did not kill, maim or shoot anything like the hundreds and thousands of people who have been killed by supporters of the hon....
Mr Harold McCusker: Too late.
Mr Harold McCusker: Will the right hon. Gentleman convey the gratitude of myself and the people of Armagh to the two hon. Gentlemen on the benches opposite who found the time to come to see the £3 million damage caused by the Irish Republican Army? Does he accept that there was a lot of anger and frustration that neither he nor the Minister of State, nor anyone else from his office, was able to come along as...
Mr Harold McCusker: I would welcome sharing power with Mr. Oliver Napier of Alliance.
Mr Harold McCusker: I was returned to this House with a majority of 15,000 and the first point of my platform was that I would not share power with the SDLP.
Mr Harold McCusker: What I said was that I had been returned with a majority of 15,000 and that the first plank of my platform in the election was that I would not share power with the SDLP. The right hon. Gentleman can interpret that as he will, but that was what I said yesterday.
Mr Harold McCusker: Does not the right hon. Gentleman agree that, having been returned three months ago on that basis, there might be a possibility that I would have to go back to my electorate and consult them before I changed that policy?
Mr Harold McCusker: Two hon. Members have referred to comments which I made yesterday, and I want to clarify my position. I was asked whether I would share power with Roman Catholics. I said that I would, and I named one with whom I would share power. I would share power with a Roman Catholic, Alliance, Northern Ireland Labour or any other party which accepted Northern Ireland as an integral part of the United...
Mr Harold McCusker: As I said in my maiden speech, if circumstances had been different I might be over there. I was opposed to the Industrial Relations Act on the basis that it was not possible to change people's minds by legislation, and I am opposed to the Constitution Act and the Sunningdale Agreement for the same reason. One can no more change the attitudes of the people of Northern Ireland by legislation...
Mr Harold McCusker: The legislation contained in the Northern Ireland Constitution Act would not have changed their minds in the same way. The Sunningdale Agreement sought to devise structures, to give power and to influence people to think in all-Ireland terms—a course which I and most other people in Northern Ireland believed would ultimately have led us perhaps to see our centre of gravity as Dublin instead...
Mr Harold McCusker: Then I assume that Mr. Devlin is a liar. I should like briefly to comment on some of the solutions which we heard outlined in the House yesterday. If those solutions were not so ludicrous they would seem obscene. It is absolute folly to talk of mass movements of population and re-partition. I find repugnant the suggestion that Protestants and Catholics cannot live and work together in...
Mr Harold McCusker: Perhaps I misunderstood the remarks of the hon. Member for West Lothian, but I shall read again his speech in HANSARD. When I was in hospital last week I was nursed by Roman Catholic nurses. They did not ask me my religion; they probably did not need to do so. The treatment they meted out to me was no different than if I had been Cardinal Conway. Perhaps it would be nice in this House, since...
Mr Harold McCusker: My hon. Friend the Member for Down, North (Mr. Kilfedder) mentions that area where a number of young men have been killed. Every death pains me dearly, but I remind the House that during the 50 years prior to that the situation was handled admirably, and that if the hon. Member for Erith and Crayford had extrapolated the figures a little further he would have discovered that the hated B...
Mr Harold McCusker: I am trying to consider possible sources of recruitment, and I quote as an example of the terms and conditions of employment the fact that a Reserve constable in the RUC is paid 55p an hour, and that a UDR man is paid 50p an hour. We have to bear in mind that the time that they work is in excess of their normal working hours. They are family men. They risk their lives and those of their...
Mr Harold McCusker: I was implying that the wry smile may have been because the Secretary of State was at a loss to answer the question. In any event, he did not say yesterday what he has just said. I support him completely in what he has just said. I was about to say that the RUC removed barriers in the rural areas. Any that they did not remove in my constituency, I had to remove. The Army removed only one in...
