Mr Julian Amery: The admirable speech of the hon. Member for Swansea, East (Mr. Anderson) was interrupted by questions about the ethnic composition of Macedonia and whether it is Bulgarian, Greek or Albanian. We should always bear in mind the words of Saint Paul, who said in one of his epistles: Come over into Macedonia and help us; for the brethren are sore oppressed. They are still oppressed. In March...
Mr Julian Amery: I thought that I went rather further than that when I recalled that Hitler needed nine divisions to keep the roads open. I am not sure what we are embarking on, but we should bear that point in mind. We do not have a great economic stake in the matter, and we have some political credit. But we are concerned with the balance of power within the European Community. Before the European...
Mr Julian Amery: I beg my right hon. Friend not to underrate the seriousness of the present situation. The Province is quite close to sliding into civil war between the communities, and if that happens the security forces will find it difficult to hold the ring between them. I ask my right hon. Friend one simple question. Is it a fact that the intelligence community—the security forces—know the identity...
Mr Julian Amery: I accept everything that has been said by right hon. and hon. Members on both sides of the House about the need for a stronger line against terrorism. Does my right hon. Friend agree, however, that for 20 years he and his predecessors have pursued the will-of-the-wisp of power-sharing, devolved government; and that, for as long as it is pursued, the IRA will believe, rightly or wrongly, that...
Mr Julian Amery: There has been a galaxy of talent in this debate from the Front and Back Benches, but the most important speech was made outside the House of Commons yesterday—by Mr. Delors in Strasbourg. The words of my right hon. Friend the Member for Finchley (Mrs. Thatcher) about our being on a conveyor belt to federalism were still ringing in my ears when I picked up the morning papers and read that...
Mr Julian Amery: I assure my right hon. Friend that his statement will be warmly welcomed in my constituency. As well as consulting with the local authorities of Brighton and East Sussex, will my right hon. Friend also contact Sussex university where some of the homelessness problem arises?
Mr Julian Amery: What those of us who, under Lord Shackleton's leadership, have been advocating is a long-term commitment to a British presence not just in the Falklands but in the Antarctic area. I did not catch whether the Minister committed us to that. I hope that he did.
Mr Julian Amery: Odd as it may seem, this is the first occasion on which we have been able to discuss the Gulf war which preoccupied us so much last summer. I am grateful to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for having put it so much on the agenda of today's debate. It was, of course, a great victory in every sense. It succeeded, it cost very little in terms of casualties, and our allies paid a...
Mr Julian Amery: My right hon. Friend will have noted that the dictator of Ethiopia appears to have left the country. Will he seize the initiative now and instruct our representative there to make immediate contact with the successor Administration to find out how we can help to lead the country towards democracy? Britain liberated Ethiopia from the Italians in the second world war. We now have a chance to...
Mr Julian Amery: Does my right hon. Friend agree that there is overwhelming support in this country and in Europe and growing support in the United States for the concept of my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister of safe havens for the Kurds and, I hope, for the Shias, too? Does he further agree that if there should be a conflict between our commitment to non-interference in the affairs of other countries...
Mr Julian Amery: Does my right hon. Friend agree that, whether the proposals are right or wrong, they will be seen in Northern Ireland as colonialism? If he wants to keep in touch with opinion in Northern Ireland, would not it be better to restore local government and get a better feel of what the community thinks?
Mr Julian Amery: First, let me tell the House that my hon. Friend the Member for Northampton, North (Mr. Marlow) has consulted the Division list and has confirmed that the hon. Member for Birmingham, Ladywood (Ms. Short) voted. No doubt her hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Mrs. Golding) will apologise in due course, but not in the 10 minutes allotted to me.
Mr Julian Amery: No. I will not give way.
Mr Julian Amery: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I hope that you will allow the clock to start now. We all agree that it is a long-standing convention that in the ordinary way the Executive should never interfere in the judicial process, but here we are not concerned with the judicial process; we are concerned with new legislation. Therefore, it is not only our right but our duty to consider the political...
Mr Julian Amery: I congratulate my right hon. Friend and support everything that he has said, as well as what has been said by my right hon. Friend the Member for Finchley (Mrs. Thatcher). But will my right hon. Friend recall Shakespeare's words and bear it in mind that the snake has been scotched but not killed? Does my right hon. Friend accept that the desirable end of bringing our forces back from the...
Mr Julian Amery: While I appreciate that the decision on these matters must rest predominantly with our American allies who have contributed most of the power, in such advice as we convey to the United States, will my hon. and learned Friend bear in mind Sir Winston Churchill's verdict on Suez: I don't know if I would have dared to start, but I would never have dared to stop"?
Mr Julian Amery: Is my right hon. Friend aware that the House has been patient with him over the negotiations? We were led to believe that we would be given some statement by Christmas, yet we are now deep into February. That is frustrating. If the Secretary of State cannot make a statement yet, will he discuss with my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House whether we could have a debate in which we can...
Mr Julian Amery: The right hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent (Mr. Foot) robustly defended the importance of standing up for collective security. He rightly praised Mr. Brandt's initiative and that of my right hon. Friend the Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (Mr. Heath) in visiting Baghdad. I do not wish to criticise either of those statesmen for doing so. My right hon. Friend the Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup...
Mr Julian Amery: I should like at once to congratulate the Government on their decision to join the exchange rate mechanism. I do not think that it will do much to help our inflation, but it is of great importance in a broader sense. Unless we had joined, we could not really have had a seat at the table and discussed the future of the monetary evolution of the European Community. That matter is immensely...
Mr Julian Amery: While I fully understand the Chancellor's reluctance to have anything to do with the date of 1994 proposed by the German Chancellor, cannot he say that if everyone were prepared to go ahead with the hard ecu in 1994 we should be happy to go along with them?
