Sir Douglas Glover: That would have been very easy.
Sir Douglas Glover: I must tell the House that I had every intention of being present during this debate but British Railways, a nationalised industry, let me down and I have only just arrived in the House.
Sir Douglas Glover: The hon. Gentleman will appreciate that fencing of the roads in the New Forest probably involved 100 miles, but that to do the same thing in Scotland would probably involve 10,000 miles.
Sir Douglas Glover: I was driving home from this illustrious Chamber about two years ago, and if I had been thinking about the speech which the hon. Member for Ormskirk (Sir D. Glover) had made, I would probably have been driving at 60 m.p.h. and would probably, therefore, not have been here tonight. Turning a corner, I found a mad bullock galloping towards me at about 20 m.p.h. But at the time I was thinking...
Sir Douglas Glover: The same problem applies in this case of the hill farmers with sheep or cattle. If the whole country were insured against this sort of accident, the premium, I believe, would be minimal. But it would give the farmers great assurance that they need not worry too much, and it would also give to travellers an enormous assurance that they themselves would not be put at great risk. I have very...
Sir Douglas Glover: The hon. Gentleman and I are usually speaking on the same wavelength, but I think he has slightly misunderstood me. In my encounter with the mad bullock one of the farmer's men explained what had happened, and the farmer was not negligent. I think that the farmer should be insured and that the premium he would have to pay would be very small. Let us not forget that when a man driving at 80...
Sir Douglas Glover: The same thing could be done with straying cattle. This is a very serious problem, but not nearly so serious today, I believe, even with all the growth of traffic, as it was 10 or 15 years ago, because of the strange educational process among the animals. I was interested in the amusing speech of the hon. Member for Brecon and Radnor. What happens if a fox jumps over a fence? Twice in my...
Sir Douglas Glover: I think that the hon. and learned Gentleman is making the most profound speech that we have heard on the Bill, and I think that the House is listening with great interest. Does this mean that if I am gored by a bull in a farmyard the farmer will be liable, but if I am gored in a field he probably will not be so liable?
Sir Douglas Glover: I am sure that the House is interested in those figures, but can the right hon. Gentleman say how many of the 620 now unemployed are undergoing retraining?
Sir Douglas Glover: I always listen with interest to the hon. Member for Billericay (Mr. Moonman), but I am getting a little tired of hearing from the benches opposite the sort of remarks which he made at the end of his speech. The record of the Labour Party on employment, not just in this Parliament, is a very bad one, and it is about time they realised it. Hon. Members opposite are great at talking about...
Sir Douglas Glover: Must the two figures, 8·2 per cent and 9·1 per cent., be added together, giving a total of 17 per cent. plus?
Sir Douglas Glover: The hon. Member for Tottenham (Mr. Atkinson) is too simple-minded, or is being deliberately so, over this problem. The Opposition's complaint is that, although the Government nailed their colours to the mast over statutory incomes policy and over statutory action in regard to trade union organisation in this country, they have welshed on the whole deal and have run away and left the whole...
Sir Douglas Glover: I assure you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, that from now on I will remain strictly in order. But there is a long tradition in the House that when somebody is provoked by hon. Gentlemen opposite, the Chair, with its wisdom that is past all understanding, always allows an hon. Member on the other side to reply. The reason that I oppose this order is that it has now become clear that the Government are...
Sir Douglas Glover: Sir Douglas Glover (Ormskirk) indicated dissent.
Sir Douglas Glover: He is reading, too.
Sir Douglas Glover: I have listened to the debate with a good deal of fascination. Why should the Govern- ment be congratulated on having taken over a company which, apparently, was going out of business, and for injecting millions of pounds into it, when it is now going out of business?
Sir Douglas Glover: It is the tradition of the House for hon. Members taking part in a debate such as this to declare any interests that they may have. I have an interest to declare. It is that I know nothing about the aircraft industry. After what the Government have done, it would be wrong and not in the national interest for them to allow Beagle Aircraft to close down. I cannot understand why, when the State...
Sir Douglas Glover: Did not the same position arise when the Government made their previous rescue operation? Did they not pay a grossly over-inflated price for the assets then?
Sir Douglas Glover: Sir D. Glover rose—
Sir Douglas Glover: Why not? Put it on the record.