Mr Terry Dicks: Why is my right hon. Friend so concerned about making the arts more accessible to young people? Most of the kids I know would go bonkers if they had to sit through anything like that. Why subsidise this? Why spend taxpayers' money on such nonsense? If kids want to go to the ballet or the opera, or to see classical plays, either they or their parents ought to be made to pay the economic costs....
Mr Terry Dicks: Social workers.
Mr Terry Dicks: rose—
Mr Terry Dicks: The right hon. Gentleman just said that he would make a decision in the national economic interest. Does he see a distinction between that, which is what the Chancellor said, and the national interest vis-à-vis sovereignty? There must be a distinction. Does the right hon. Gentleman not see it?
Mr Terry Dicks: rose—
Mr Terry Dicks: At the time the hon. Gentleman, my right hon. Friends the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition went to Dunblane, soon after the tragedy, the implication was—I may be wrong—that everybody would do all that could be done to ensure that such events would not happen again. I am disappointed that that has not happened and that is why we have a...
Mr Terry Dicks: My hon. Friend has tried to apply logic to the Government's policy, and that was an error. Is it not true that the policy was cobbled together simply to keep the Cabinet intact? That is why it is so illogical and cannot be explained in a way that the average man in the street can understand.
Mr Terry Dicks: The logic of my hon. Friend's argument worries me. We will not stop trying to get rid of illegal weapons while we are getting rid of legal ones. The two go hand in hand. Crack cocaine is available only illegally; does he suggest that we should make that lawful?
Mr Terry Dicks: What is the difference between one day and another and one date and another? Is not the whole millennium thing a load of nonsense? I never thought that I would come to say this, but for once in my political life I agree with the hon. Member for Islington, North (Mr. Corbyn).
Mr Terry Dicks: Will my hon. Friend give way?
Mr Terry Dicks: Both my hon. Friends the Members for Ruislip-Northwood (Mr. Wilkinson) and for Uxbridge (Sir M. Shersby) will recall that back in the '70s we had problems with the infamous Alderman John Bartlett, who wanted to turn Ruislip-Northwood into one massive council estate for political reasons. When the Conservatives took power in 1978—I was the housing chairman—I was presented with a waiting...
Mr Terry Dicks: As my hon. Friend knows, I shall support his amendment. He has not mentioned, however, punishing parents whose children misbehave. It is a parental, not a school, problem. Why do we not put parents of unruly kids in prison for six months? If we did that, at least they might make their kids behave in school.
Mr Terry Dicks: The hon. Gentleman always says that.
Mr Terry Dicks: Who elected their leader and pays for his expenses?
Mr Terry Dicks: The theme of my hon. Friend's remarks—I apologise for missing the start of his speech—is that such subsidies are like a vegetarian saying that he wants no nuts, tomato or mayonnaise in his diet, which is possible but highly unbelievable. My hon. Friend makes the point, much more eloquently than I can do, that the claim made by the Commission and the airlines that they are not really keen...
Mr Terry Dicks: Ordinary people, especially those who live in my constituency around Heathrow, will support the measures. I am getting a little sick and tired of the apologists for terrorists on the Labour Benches trying to undermine my right hon. and learned Friend's job.
Mr Terry Dicks: Since it seems to me that the terrorists have been able to bomb themselves into the peace process thus far, can my right hon. Friend assure me, from his discussions today, that, no matter what they do in the future, it will stop there? The likes of Adams, McGuinness and Kelly are all terrorists. I do not accept the distinction between Sinn Fein and the IRA—they are all the same evil people....
Mr Terry Dicks: Do the new arrangements mean that civil servants will have to contribute to their pensions for a change, like the rest of us?
Mr Terry Dicks: It was another word, but if the context is offending you, of course I withdraw.
Mr Terry Dicks: I withdraw the word "hypocrite" and use the words "double standard".
