Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: My hon. Friend has raised an important point on the whole question of alcoholism and crime. Does he not agree that the problem of alcoholism extends much further than the narrow effect on crime figures and that it is time that the Government published the Green Paper on alcoholism the publication of which they seem to be holding up?
Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: Does not my hon. Friend agree that the right hon. Member for Down, South (Mr. Powell) described two schools—the one that would be all right on the night and also the hecatomb that he prophesied? Surely it is not good enough to say that it will be all right on the night when the right hon. Gentleman admits that no one really knows who was right. Surely it would be much more constructive if...
Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: I disagree with most of what my hon. Friend the Member for Basildon (Mr. Proctor) said. However, to talk in the sort of language just used by the hon. Member for Walsall, North (Mr. Winnick) and to put words into the mouth of my hon. Friend which he did not use simply serves to inflame the atmosphere of this debate.
Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: May I thank my right hon. Friend for his sympathy for the amendment calling for an allowance to enable hon. Members to contribute to a supplementary pension for their secretaries? Perhaps it is an innocent question from a new hon. Member, but does that sympathy indicate that the Government will not be using the Whip against the amendment?
Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: An independent Liberal. There are even a few of those.
Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: In his opening speech, my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House said that he thought the pay of hon. Members was adequate rather than generous. I agree. I regard that as right and proper. I believe that most hon. Members will agree that it is a privilege to be in this place and that hon. Members should not therefore be surprised if there is some sort of a discount on their salaries. The...
Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: Would the hon. Gentleman confirm that it was not necessary to purchase those additional years out of capital but that arrangements were available to Members of Parliament to buy them on a scale basis?
Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: The House will be grateful for the opportunity to discuss this issue. I hope that the Minister of State will bear in mind the support given by so many of my hon Friends this evening, in spite of the financial restrictions.
Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: Was it 49 per cent.?
Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: rose—
Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: The right hon. and learned Gentleman may be aware of a company that is in the position that he describes. However, in my trade union, as the hon. Member for Thurrock (Dr. McDonald) is well aware, the majority of the members have already opted out of the political fund. Therefore, they have taken a specific decision not to support the Labour Party. However, the union is still affiliated to the...
Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: rose—
Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: May I take up the point made by the hon. Member for Thurrock (Dr. McDonald)? As a member of her trade union—we are brother and sister in this matter—I wish to underline the point that my hon. Friend has made. I was delighted to hear that the hon. Lady is not a sponsored Member, and that may well be due to the fact that 80 per cent. of the members of our union have already opted out of the...
Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: asked the Secretary of State for Trade what action he intends to take in the light of the working party's report on advertising control.
Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: Does my hon. Friend agree that the principle of self-regulatory control in advertising is probably good? Is he certain that there is a need to alter the present practice, apart from the requirement to comply with a particularly meddlesome EEC directive? Why do we not merely veto it?
Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: I hope that the House will reject this censure motion for two main reasons—first, because of its provenance and, secondly, because of the motives that lie behind it. What is the provenance of the motion? We are led to believe that it is a censure motion tabled by the Leader—at least for the time being—of Her Majesty's Opposition. The House and the country are entitled to ask what...
Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: Perhaps in the course of his next meeting with the British Railways Board—and I recognise that this falls slightly outside the context of the question—my right hon. Friend would raise the matter of the very serious train crash which took place in my constituency—
Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: Following those remarks, will the Minister agree that tribute must be paid to people in my constituency, particularly those at the Watford general hospital, who admitted 45 people in one and a half hours, and also to the employees of British Rail and the local police who acted very promptly and very well in the circumstances? Will the Minister give my constituents an assurance that the...
Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: I came to the House this evening with some trepidation because a number of substantial firms have made representations to me about the immense damage and intolerable burden caused by the unitary taxation system in California. The House owes a debt of gratitude to the Minister of State and my right hon. Friend the Member for Crosby (Sir G. Page), both of whom, ploughing different furrows, have...
Mr Tristan Garel-Jones: I have listened with interest to my hon. Friend's tale of how the Labour Party has, in a sense, been the enemy of the British pig industry. I am sure that my hon. Friend's constituents will wish to know that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister is in the Chamber to hear the important points being put on their behalf by my hon. Friend.