Mr Anthony Coombs: How much would you pay?
Mr Anthony Coombs: Quango?
Mr Anthony Coombs: That is a disgraceful remark.
Mr Anthony Coombs: I warmly welcome the Government's action to protect mail users and the ultimate viability of the Post Office. Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is typical of the craven cowardice of the Labour party that it refuses to protect mail users by condemning the strike? Does he also agree that it is now time for the Government to consider lifting the monopoly on mail services so that they can...
Mr Anthony Coombs: May we have a debate on the planning system as it relates to the accelerated culling programme, and specifically the provision of incinerator plants, so that I can raise with the House the alarm, and despair in many cases, of thousands of my constituents at what are fortunately informal proposals at present to site such an incinerator plant in my constituency at Stourport? Last week, the...
Mr Anthony Coombs: I did not think that I would ever agree with the Labour party's latter-day John the Baptist, the hon. Member for Brent, East (Mr. Livingstone), but I agree with his comments about the single currency and an independent central bank. I also agreed with him when he described the left as constantly talking Britain down, because that is what we have heard from Labour Members during the debate. I...
Mr Anthony Coombs: No, I have only 10 minutes. The transformation would be sorely tried, even destroyed, should a Labour Government ever be able to implement their policies. I found it appalling that the right hon. Member for Dunfermline, East (Mr. Brown)—who purports to be the next Chancellor of the Exchequer if, heaven forfend, the Labour party were to win the election—could not advance any policies or...
Mr Anthony Coombs: Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr Anthony Coombs: If the right hon. Gentleman is saying that borrowing is too high, can he explain to the House how the ratio of the public sector borrowing requirement to GDP in the past 16 years of Conservative government is under half what it was during the last Labour Government?
Mr Anthony Coombs: On a point of order, Madam Speaker. I seek your guidance on the ten-minute Bill that the hon. Member for Barking (Ms Hodge) is about to present. As she was the council leader who presided over and covered up the most appalling abuse in homes in Islington, will you rule as to whether she has a declarable interest in introducing the debate?
Mr Anthony Coombs: Does my hon. Friend agree that, since Aung San Suu Kyi's release from house arrest, far from democratic reconciliation having taken place between SLORC and opposition parties, the level of oppression has, if anything, increased significantly? Given that Aung San Suu Kyi herself has said that European countries, and the international community generally, ought to discourage trade and...
Mr Anthony Coombs: Will my right hon. Friend confirm that recent surveys by the Council of Mortgage Lenders and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors show a significant improvement in sentiment in the housing market and considerably improved activity? Is that not the result of sustained low interest rates? Is it not a bit rich for the Labour party, in the form of its shadow spokesman, to talk about...
Mr Anthony Coombs: If the hon. Gentleman's objection is that English Members may vote on the Education (Scotland) Bill, was it inconsistency or hypocrisy that led him and his Scottish National party colleagues to see fit to vote on the Nursery Education and Grant-Maintained Schools Bill recently, even though it applied only to England and Wales?
Mr Anthony Coombs: Answer the question.
Mr Anthony Coombs: rose—
Mr Anthony Coombs: I welcome, although I am not terribly surprised at, the effect of the regulations in reducing in-house asylum applications, the vast majority of which are totally bogus, as we all know. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the change will have two effects? It will save the taxpayer about £200 million a year, which the Opposition always seem to forget, and it will improve the climate for...
Mr Anthony Coombs: Does my right hon. Friend agree with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which found that the reasons why small businesses in this country produce so many new jobs arc the deregulation and privatisation effected by the Government, and the lowering of company taxation for small businesses? Was he as nauseated as I was to see the Leader of the Opposition last week in...
Mr Anthony Coombs: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr Anthony Coombs: I welcome the enormous and good work that my right hon. and learned Friend is doing and I also welcome the fact that non-conviction information will be carried for certain individuals and organisations who look after children. What right of appeal will there be for an organisation that is refused information by a senior police officer if it feels that that information is crucial, although it...
Mr Anthony Coombs: As Britain attracts more than 40 per cent. of US and Japanese investment in Europe, does my hon. Friend agree that that might have more to do with an observation made last week by George Simpson, chief executive of Lucas Industries, who is to be the new chairman of GEC? He commented that, in 30 years in business, he could not remember a time when economic policy was managed in such a way as...