We need your support to keep TheyWorkForYou running and make sure people across the UK can continue to hold their elected representatives to account.
Donate to our crowdfunderMr William Deedes: In the emotions that are bound to be aroused by this event, will the right hon. Gentleman bear firmly in mind the point raised by my right hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, North-East (Sir K. Joseph), that on first reports the incident appears to be an attack of a new character, and that at this season and in such public places it carries grave implications which should receive immediate...
Mr William Deedes: I wish to begin by congratulating the Minister of State on his appointment to the Northern Ireland Office. It is not a job that everybody would want to have, but I assure him we wish him well. It is agreeable to be able to go on to say that we accept the case for the Bill and, indeed, the arguments advanced by the Minister a few moments ago. I noticed that the Irish Times when referring to...
Mr William Deedes: Do I understand that the ages provided for in this new establishment will be from 16 to 21, not 14 to 21? Is the terminal date for building—which is 1977—about right, because if that is so, it answers many questions about how far this is a temporary measure and how long we shall wait for something better?
Mr William Deedes: Is the right hon. Lady aware that the account that she has given contains one inaccuracy? When her Department was first approached for advice on the subject, the advice it gave was that private patients should as a compromise be transferred from private wards to public wards at a reduced price.
Mr William Deedes: On the point about intimidation, and further to the question asked by the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Grimond), can the Home Secretary give a firm assurance that the termination of the Price sisters' hunger strike carries no implications for the other 30 or so prisoners in this country who wish to return to Ireland?
Mr William Deedes: This debate may differ from its predecessors on Northern Ireland in one important respect. It is not just that we and our policy now stand at major crossroads— goodness knows, we have done that before—but that to a greater degree than before this debate and its consequences may encompass our future as well as that of Northern Ireland. Whatever decisions we reach or take in this debate, it...
Mr William Deedes: I am not unaware of that and, if the Prime Minister will allow me, I shall come to it in my own time. I was stressing that words used here, whatever effect they may be expected to have on people in this country, have very different consequences on the people of Northern Ireland. We can now dispose of the past. We now have, as the Secretary of State made clear, an uneasy breathing space. We...
Mr William Deedes: —and the preponderance of Protestants over Roman Catholics remains and will remain for a long time. There is no adequate back-up force if the Army goes. In the last five years we have made very little progress towards it. To be practical again, if the Army goes and if temporarily chaos supervenes, bringing about disruption of Northern Ireland such as hitherto has been largely avoided,...
Mr William Deedes: May I interrupt the hon. Gentleman? To what extent does that consideration make highspeed rail essential to the future plan?
Mr William Deedes: Does the right hon. Gentleman accept that at least one consequence of Sunningdale has been the greatly increased responsibilities and obligations of the Government of the Republic? Would it not be a good thing for that to be brought home by Ministers from time to time?
Mr William Deedes: I am not sure that I share to the full the optimistic outlook expressed by the hon. Member for Sheffield, Attercliffe (Mr. Duffy). May I first, however, unreservedly congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Belfast, South (Mr. Bradford) on surviving the ordeal of making a maiden speech. In contrast to the hon. Member for Attercliffe, I should like to say two things to him. First, the House...
Mr William Deedes: It is a matter of interpretation. I was saying that the Labour Government left office at a time when the actions of the security forces were mainly directed at the activities of the IRA. Today the change in the situation since the Labour Government resumed office is in reality that there are now two extremes, and those are the two extremes of which I am speaking. I do not dismiss as idle...
Mr William Deedes: In view of the great pressure, which undoubtedly will be brought to bear on the right hon. Gentleman in this matter, will he make public the detail of the thinking which he has summarised to the House about the consequences for increased immigration to which he referred?
Mr William Deedes: Not the least reason for doing what my hon. Friend the Member for Walsall, South (Sir H. d'Avigdor-Goldsmid) suggested is that it would save weeks of time in the work of the Select Committee at the beginning of each Session, because there is always an unaccountable delay between setting up the Committee and its getting down to work. It knocks a considerable proportion off the working Session....
Mr William Deedes: I acknowledge the rôle which not only the former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland but my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has played in achieving this historic step forward. Does my right hon. Friend agree, and will he bear in mind sympathetically, that much may now depend on the rôle which the loyalists and Unionists apart from those who have been in discussion at Sunningdale...
Mr William Deedes: asked the Secretary of of State for the Home Department what representation he has received from the Prison Officers' Association on his decision to permit Mr. Curtis, South-East Region organiser of the National Association for the Care and Rehabilitation of Offenders, to visit Her Majesty's prisons.
Mr William Deedes: Will my right hon. Friend say whether the allegation is correct that this officer belonged to an organisation known as PROP—an organisation with which my right hon. Friend has said he will not negotiate—and that that is why exception was taken when he visited Norwich Prison, when he was refused admission, and that subsequently the Home Office reversed this judgment and permitted him to...
Mr William Deedes: Without endorsing every word that the hon. Member for Southall (Mr. Bidwell) has said, I am glad to be speaking immediately after him because we are both founder members of the same club, the members of which, I think, now predominate in the Chamber. I should like to acknowledge very warmly my debt to the members of the Select Committee, in particular the right hon. Member for Middlesbrough,...
Mr William Deedes: For my part, I should like less abuse of what my right hon. Friend says and more disposition to sift and weigh what he says and then, if necessary, to argue with it. The voice of my right hon. Friend is not diminished by disapproving silences or abuse ; it is simply magnified. It is not good enough to declare always that he is wrong, out of step or offensive on this subject and that we, by...
Mr William Deedes: I cannot answer that with certainty, and I want to stay within my own knowledge. The Indian Government have shown a mood of considerable co-operation. I hope to say more about this later. I revert to my earlier theme. If we continue in our haphazard way administatively to deal with the consequences of a haphazard immigration policy, we shall run into serious trouble. That is the biggest...