Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: Will my hon. Friend at least examine the point that I made about a council property that is at least partly commercial—for example, a garage with residential accommodation upstairs? Can his Department's long-standing objection in that respect be overcome?
Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: I congratulate my right hon. Friend on having finally overcome the reluctance of the Treasury, which we know has for years been against a national lottery. When putting the scheme out to contract, would it be possible to include a condition that rural post offices, for example, must be included in the list of sales places? Will he comment on the fact that Liberal Members came into the Chamber...
Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: First, I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich (Mr. Bowden) on raising this issue and compliment the hon. Member for Tooting (Mr. Cox) on what he has just said. From his experience of dealing with squatters, he will know that some of the attempts in the past 12 years or so to toughen the laws on squatting were vehemently opposed by hon. Members on the extreme left of the Labour...
Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: That matter has been examined in the context of a block of flats in my constituency which the tenants wished to purchase from the Church Commissioners. The whole block was bought by the tenants who then became landlords and those who did not want to buy their own flat became tenants of the new tenant organisation. Similar arrangements could apply in respect of commonhold.
Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: The House has addressed that issue on more than one occasion, and was able to close several gaps in that particular racket. I am interested to know whether others have appeared since the days when I was a housing Minister.
Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: I should like to raise the sights of the House somewhat. The motion mentions the fact that the three nations in question wish to accede to the Community. To do that, they must satisfy a major test, which is to be quite certain that their laws on human rights and elections meet the high standards of the Council of Europe, which has now been recognised by the European Community as the bridge...
Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: Yes, Wentworth, where there is that ghastly American mess of chemicals which should never have been there. Between us, the hon. Gentleman and I managed to formulate the arrangements. That has resulted in the full membership of Poland, the Czechoslovak Federal Republic and Hungary, which is far more important than the quibbling over detail that I have heard at least twice tonight. We must...
Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: Would my right hon. Friend care to estimate what percentage of those interesting crime figures are the result of members of the Labour party asking people to break the law?
Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: I agreed with much of what the right hon. Member for Morley and Leeds, South (Mr. Rees) said at the beginning of his speech, but I did not go along with his closing remarks. I want to make one comment about the referendum before dealing with the main subject of my speech. I won a marginal seat and have held it on five successive occasions. I believe that real democracy is allowing voters to...
Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: The hon. Member for Copeland (Dr. Cunningham) enjoyed making that speech and the House enjoyed some of his remarks. The trouble is that many of them were carbon copies of speeches made from that Bench over the past 20 years. I and many hon. Members in the House tonight have listened to a vast number of guillotine debates. They are predictable. I have not participated in one before, but I...
Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: Some of us were elected to carry through legislation detailed in election addresses, and I propose to continue to do that. As for the other point that my hon. Friend made, that is such a hoary chestnut that it has been answered over and over again and I do not propose to waste the time of the House repeating ad nauseam the arguments which, if he had been present, he would have heard on...
Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: The Leader of the House has read the Procedure Committee's report, and has decided that this is how we should proceed. I remind the House that among the members of that Committee was the right hon. J. Enoch Powell, who gave his approval—and there was no stauncher defender of the rights of Parliament. My hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton (Mr. Maxwell-Hyslop) is another great expert on...
Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: The hon. Gentleman puts his case very reasonably, but I cannot agree. If the Procedure Committee, having received masses of evidence, weighed that evidence and reached a conclusion with the support of all parties in the House, says that a maximum number of hours should be laid down, and my right hon. Friend proposes a minimum number, it is clear that he has gone beyond what the Committee...
Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: Alas, like so many Select Committee reports, it was not adopted. Long ago, I served on that Committee. It produces extremely good reports, but, unfortunately, they are not always given debating time, and they are not always accepted. I hope that, when the House accepts the motion later tonight, a precedent will be set. Let me be frank. I should like all legislation to be timetabled. That was...
Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: I promise that I shall do so when I finish this passage; I would not dream of not giving way to my hon. Friend. There is no point in the House deciding that it will examine the hours during which it sits and the conditions in which it works if it does not intend to reform the structure of legislation. That is why I hope that the passing of the motion will create a precedent. It will affect...
Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: It is a pity that my hon. Friend prejudices his case by using the words "bashed through." They are not words that his predecessor would have used. Moreover, I do not believe that what he has said is relevant to the debate. The mere fact of having three times the amount of time to consider the legislation would not necessarily make it any better. We might hear more speeches from my hon....
Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: Does my right hon. Friend accept that the hard-pressed community charge payers will greatly welcome what he has announced, especially in places such as the London borough of Camden, which is closing a branch library to save £38,000? Through my right hon. Friend's efforts, that borough is being forced to put out to tender for the second time the refuse collection service, which will now be a...
Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: As the headquarters of the bank is in Luxembourg, does it not make one consider again the problems of a European central bank? The regulations in Luxembourg are so minimal as to be laughable. Is my right hon. Friend aware that I have a substantial number of Asian constituents, many of whom have telephoned me to complain that the Liberal Democrats and socialists are making party political...
Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: The right hon. Member for Manchester, Wythenshawe (Mr. Morris) chairs the managing trustees very ably, and we have made an enormous amount of progress in the past few years. I also pay tribute to the Leader of the House for what he has done. I have been a trustee since 1983 and we have made substantially more advances in the past 12 months than we did in the previous period. I believe in...
Mr Geoffrey Finsberg: That would be interesting, but I did not have time to make that comparison. However, had I done so I do not think that it would have been unfavourable toward Members of Parliament—[Interruption.] I shall not enter into the many tax-free expenses that have existed in so-called Fleet street practices for many years. On balance, the proposal is very reasonable. Naturally, we should like more,...