Dr Harold Elletson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the impact on the public finances of financing capital projects under the private finance initiative rather than entirely from public funds. [18527]
Dr Harold Elletson: Is my right hon. Friend aware that the private finance initiative is making a huge contribution to projects in the national health service? Does he agree that ending its use in the NHS would add substantially to public expenditure, and would that not be precisely the effect of the Labour party's policies?
Dr Harold Elletson: Has my right hon. Friend seen recent reports in the West Lancashire Evening Gazette and The Express about a little girl of 11 in my constituency who has been addicted to heroin since the age of nine? Will he order an urgent inquiry into how Lancashire social services failed to notice that that little girl was in danger, despite the fact that eight members of her immediate family, including...
Dr Harold Elletson: I am grateful for the opportunity to raise the subject of the Government's policy towards North Korea and to my right hon. Friend the Minister of State for agreeing to reply to the debate. It is appropriate that we should discuss Korea tonight, 200 years since the first contact between Britain and Korea and less than two weeks before the scheduled tripartite meeting between the two Korean...
Dr Harold Elletson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement about the economy in the north-west of England. [9519]
Dr Harold Elletson: I thank my hon. Friend for that reply. Does it not show that, thanks to the Government's economic policy, north-west England is now one of the most competitive and successful economies in the most competitive and successful country in western Europe? Would it not be crazy to throw all that away on new Labour, new failure?
Dr Harold Elletson: It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Cambridge (Mrs. Campbell), who speaks with great authority about data protection and smartcard technology, but with somewhat less authority, I fear, about estimates of benefit fraud. I very much welcome the Bill, which has been described by the Secretary of State as one of his top priorities and is among the top priorities of my constituents,...
Dr Harold Elletson: Indeed, as my hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster (Dame E. Kellett-Bowman) said, it affects Morecambe and many other seaside resorts throughout the country. I hope that those activities will continue in the future because they are paying dividends in seaside resorts. I am delighted by some of the activities that have been undertaken by benefit fraud investigators and the Department of...
Dr Harold Elletson: Will the hon. Gentleman tell us what mandate he thinks he has to speak in the debate? He does not represent a seat in the Lancashire county council area, and he betrayed the electors of Bolton—who voted for a Conservative Member of Parliament. Why does not he resign now, fight a by-election, get a proper mandate and then come back to speak?
Dr Harold Elletson: The hon. Gentleman is taking up our time.
Dr Harold Elletson: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Dr Harold Elletson: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Dr Harold Elletson: Does my hon. Friend agree that social services brochures and documents are unreliable? Does he recall the document that I produced in last year's social services debate which featured my constituent Geraldine Robinson on the cover? She suffers from cerebral palsy and was told that, as a result of Lancashire county council's mismanagement, her budget for domiciliary care would be cut from...
Dr Harold Elletson: My hon. Friend mentioned the defence manufacturing base. Like him, I have many constituents who work for British Aerospace at Warton and Samlesbury. Does my hon. Friend agree that his constituents' jobs depend significantly on defence exports? Does he agree that it is absolutely disgraceful that many Labour Members oppose defence exports to some of British Aerospace's most significant...
Dr Harold Elletson: It is interesting to follow the hon. Member for Glasgow, Central (Mr. Watson), because my hon. Friends and I understood him to have opened a new area of Labour party policy. He seemed to commit the Labour party to at least three referendums on various subjects of interest to the British people. I understood him to say that he was expressing the possibility that the Labour party would commit...
Dr Harold Elletson: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that clarification. It is useful for the House to have that on record and for the British people to understand that we could be involved in such a prolonged period of extensive referendums. Clearly, the Labour party is unable to trust the House with making up its mind and will commit us to extensive and unnecessary referendums.
Dr Harold Elletson: The Labour party is being coy. As my hon. Friend says, we have committed ourselves to a referendum on a fundamental constitutional issue—the single currency—but for the Labour party to commit itself to three referendums seems more than a little careless and utterly absurd. I hope that the British people recognise that at the next general election; however, I do not want to get stuck on...
Dr Harold Elletson: I entirely agree with my hon. Friend, who is absolutely right. That is an example of Germany trying to impose a common foreign policy on Europe. In that instance, Germany tried to bounce the rest of Europe into recognising Croatia, and it was a complete disaster. It helped to create the conflict in Bosnia, with all the enormous and tragic consequences that followed. It is possible, however,...
Dr Harold Elletson: I am not sure that it is appropriate to undertake the gambling activity of which my hon. Friend seeks to persuade me.
Dr Harold Elletson: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I am sorry for having given way to my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Staffordshire. Perhaps he did not expect me to do so. Earlier, he made an extremely good point about the dangers of trying to impose a common European foreign policy. If the Germans want greater foreign policy co-ordination, the best way is through industrial trading and investment...
