Mr Sydney Irving: I, like other right hon. and hon. Members, would like to pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough (Mr. Bottomley) and the members of his Committee for the work that they have done. We are very grateful to them. I should also like to pay tribute to the staff, because the excellence of the work done here owes a great debt to the quality and devotion of the staff of the...
Mr Sydney Irving: —and contempt on the state of affairs that exists here and wonder how we ever allowed ourselves to get into this position. I am not asking for or urging an immediate increment for Members of Parliament.
Mr Sydney Irving: What we are talking about is the principle by which our pay and conditions should be determined. We are not talking about whether we have a Boyle Committee or any other arrangement. We are talking about how the House faces up to the decisions that have to be taken and the recommendations that have to be made when such matters are determined. The Bill establishes a new principle upon which, I...
Mr Sydney Irving: For a number of hon. Members in the Chamber, this is a very important moment because it is the culmination of 10 years' effort by the co-operative movement and the co-operative parliamentary group, of which I am chairman, to get recognition for the idea of a Co-operative Development Agency and to secure a Government Bill. I therefore congratulate the Government on the introduction of the...
Mr Sydney Irving: Will my right hon. Friend accept that one of the most serious deficiencies, perhaps in the whole of our road system, is the failure to provide an adequate road out of London to the South-East, to Kent and the Continent? As this has been due, in part, to prolonged consultative procedures, does he expect that in the special situation of London his new policies will expedite this project?
Mr Sydney Irving: I apologise to my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary for the fact that I was unable to be present in the opening stages of this debate. I shall make only a brief intervention. I support reluctantly the need for this legislation. I am always sorry when the normal processes of justice have to be suspended, but I believe that basically this legislation seeks to protect the public and is...
Mr Sydney Irving: I welcome the Bill, although I am bound to say that it does not come a moment too early. The state of bus services in my constituency is little short of a disgrace. Exorbitant increases in fares, reduced services and intermittent running have made life for the old, the sick, the housewife and young family almost unbearable. This is bad enough, but if nothing is done, and done quickly, a...
Mr Sydney Irving: I shall be brief, partly because a number of hon. Members are waiting to speak and partly because I do not intend to devote all my remarks to industry, and I hope that the House will forgive me for that. I want to express support for the measures in the Queen's Speech as a programme for the coming Session. It contains, in the main, the inescapable commitments entered into in the past, such...
Mr Sydney Irving: I am obviously the butt of an altercation about previous happenings. If I am keeping to my notes, it is to assist my mind in setting out as I said at the beginning of my remarks to be brief. I want to end on the note I was on when interrupted. The question of rural bus services, whether for the support of industry or the elderly, the sick, and those without cars, is of vital urgency. I hope...
Mr Sydney Irving: As a former occupant of the Chair, to say nothing of being a Privy Councillor, that is the last argument in which I wish to become involved. However I might redeem myself if I say that I have not applied to go to Europe, along with the entire membership of my party. The Bill has at last got on to the Floor of the House. It seems a long time since the Select Committee, over which I presided,...
Mr Sydney Irving: It is not a major matter and does not present an insuperable difficulty for the Boundary Commissions. There are no precedents for the Boundary Commissions being briefed in this way. But it is a common practice in nationalisation and other measures to set up shadow boards and make other appointments long before the measure receives Royal Assent. I urge the Government to consider that. I make...
Mr Sydney Irving: It is what we believe. The Government should not shirk their responsibility. They should accept that they might have to consider a guillotine, although this depends on the support in the House. The Bill should not be held up by indefinite obstruction. That is not in the tradition of the House.
Mr Sydney Irving: It is gratifying for the Committee of which I was Chairman and the hon. Member for Mid-Oxon (Mr. Hurd) was so distinguished a member that so many of its recommendations have been accepted by the Government. I am grateful to all members of the Committee for their co-operation in a most intense effort and particularly grateful to the Clerks, Mr. Limon and Mr. Clark, and to Sir Charles Davis,...
Mr Sydney Irving: In view of the number of hon. Members who wish to speak in the debate, I shall have to say to my hon. Friend that we must disagree on this matter. Some hon. Members have been concerned that direct elections will accelerate progress towards some sort of federal system. I believe that in this context the elections will have very little effect. They would at the most mean a limited if useful...
Mr Sydney Irving: I do. That is my view. I am bound to say that in other connections, in respect of sickness or other matters, I do not believe that it will be many years before proxy voting becomes accepted as a norm in this House and not just for Strasbourg. I am concerned about the dangers of alienation. I am concerned about the growth of an increasing number of independent and unrelated representatives....
Mr Sydney Irving: The hon. Member for the City of London and Westminster, South (Mr. Brooke) is the son of a distinguished father whom many of us remember and whom we respected as a Member of this House. On his own account the hon. Gentleman has made a fluent and most competent speech, although we look forward with some interest to the time when he ceases to be non-controversial, if that was a...
Mr Sydney Irving: I believe that what my hon. Friend has said is so. But with common sense the agreement can carry us both through to calmer times. If we have a series of cliff-hangers, such as we have had this last weekend, it will weaken the confidence of the Government in their capacity to negotiate and the confidence of those people who have to negotiate with the Government. Incidentally, it will also...
Mr Sydney Irving: Like the right hon. Member for Chipping Barnet (Mr. Maudling), I should like to congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Newham, North-East (Mr. Prentice) on his speech this evening, I have known my right hon. Friend for over 30 years. The one thing that he has never lacked is courage. Whether or not one agrees with everything that he said tonight, most of us would concede that it was...
Mr Sydney Irving: If my hon. Friend reads the Tribune and Geoffrey Wainwright's article he will see that it seems as if he does not talk about anything but import controls. But when one reads the remainder of the article one finds that it is not just a matter of import controls. The author suggests the closure of the Stock Exchange and the commodity markets, the direction of pension funds into Government...
Mr Sydney Irving: Many hon. Members wish to speak, so I shall try not to be drawn by sedentary remarks. Import controls would mean scarcity which would raise prices, and give a huge boost to inflation. With prices soaring, the possibility of a further period of wage restraint would be out of the question, to say nothing of the effect on industrial relations. Several firms in my constituency are doing...
