Mr Eric Deakins: asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he intends to propose a wealth tax in the forthcoming Budget.
Mr Eric Deakins: Will the hon. Gentleman use his undoubted influence with his right hon. Friend to put this forward as a serious proposition for the Budget, not only as a revenue raiser but as a means of ensuring the essential pre-conditions for a socially just prices and incomes policy?
Mr Eric Deakins: You, Sir Robert, in reply to a point of order, said that Parliament could vote a certain sum of money but that it was up to the Treasury whether it spent all of that money. I hope that I have stated that correctly. Surely the wording which my hon. Friend ought to be talking about on this Clause is "up to an amount of £296,822,000." If your Ruling, Sir Robert, were correct, surely the wording...
Mr Eric Deakins: asked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications when he proposes to make an announcement about increased installation charges for domestic telephones.
Mr Eric Deakins: Would the right hon. Gentleman ensure that the Post Office is aware that there would be an adverse public reaction if these charges were to be raised beyond the cost of providing the service? Is he further aware that raising them to the extent of subsidising uneconomic parts of the Post Office service would be taken very badly amiss?
Mr Eric Deakins: asked the Minister of State for Defence whether it is the policy of Her Majesty's Government to work for a distinct European defence capability within the framework of the Atlantic Alliance.
Mr Eric Deakins: Will the Minister of State confirm that this will ultimately involve sharing control of nuclear weapons with other countries of the Western Alliance.
Mr Eric Deakins: This is a debate on agriculture as well as on rating. I should, therefore, begin by declaring an interest. I am not a farmer, but for the past 15 years I have been employed by the largest agricultural marketing firm in the country, and I am currently employed by that firm part-time until the end of this financial year. Thereafter, I may retain some kind of financial connection with it. I...
Mr Eric Deakins: In view of what the Minister has just said, would he confirm an answer which he gave me in this House some time ago that the Annual Review in the United Kingdom would not be given statutory force, as would the present price review arrangements?
Mr Eric Deakins: I too oppose the Bill. The Government's powers in Clause 1 are not borne out by what the Minister said about the transfer of certain routes. One of the purposes of the Bill is to promote competition, but the routes which are being transferred are international routes on which there is already a great deal of competition for our nationalised airlines from national airlines overseas. It is to...
Mr Eric Deakins: At least the hon. Gentleman agrees that a crime has been committed. We can agree to disagree about its exact nature.
Mr Eric Deakins: I had better leave the matter there. We have reason to believe that the Government do not have the courage of their convictions. I would be out of order in mentioning the clearing bank monopoly and so on. What they are proposing could lead to greater competition in the air, but we are afraid that it will merely mean the replacement of one monopoly situation with another, with in due course,...
Mr Eric Deakins: asked the Lord President of the Council if he will ensure that Ministerial statements about Her Majesty's Government's attitudes to proposals for economic, monetary or political union within the European Economic Community are made first to the House of Commons.
Mr Eric Deakins: Is not the Lord President of the Council aware of the grave disquiet among members of all parties about the statements being made in Europe by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster to the effect that the Government are in favour of political unity with Western Europe—a vitally important topic which has never been discussed in the Chamber? If the Lord President cannot restrain the...
Mr Eric Deakins: asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he is satisfied that the European Economic Community's existing arrangements will be adequate, in the circumstances of an enlarged Community, to ensure stability in the market for pigs and pigmeat; and if he will make a statement.
Mr Eric Deakins: Is the Minister aware that in Western Europe the pig population is expanding and that in the absence of production controls under the common agricultural policy, it is likely that we shall be joining the Common Market at the peak of the pig cycle without any safeguards for our own producers in the sense that flexible market arrangements will have been abolished by that time?
Mr Eric Deakins: asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what present functions of the Milk Marketing Board will have to be abolished if the United Kingdom enters the European Economic Community.
Mr Eric Deakins: Is it not a fact that the pooling arrangements for transport costs of milk producers in this country will be incompatible with the provisions of the Treaty of Rome relating to free competition, and that the abolition of those pooling arrangements for transport costs will hit at milk production in the remoter areas of the United Kingdom?
Mr Eric Deakins: I should like to thank my hon. Friend the Member for Dudley (Dr. Gilbert) and the Minister for allowing me to intervene in this Adjournment debate, since basically both my hon. Friend and I have been at one in writing to the Department on various occasions concerning the collusive raising of bank charges and the business of charging other bank customers 4s. for cashing cheques at the clearing...
Mr Eric Deakins: asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether, in view of Her Majesty's Government's acceptance of the provisions of the Treaty of Rome relating to free movement of labour he will discuss with the General Medical Council or other appropriate body the amendment of those rules which prescribe the necessary qualifications for the practice of medicine within the United Kingdom.