Mr Malcolm Macmillan: I preface my remarks by saying that I agree with almost every word of the hon. and learned Member for Montgomery (Mr. Hooson). I would perhaps modify his last few words a little, because I do not think that my hon. Friend the Member for Dagenham (Mr. Parker) intended to be arrogant. It may be that he was just too emphatic. On the other hand, my hon. Friend the Member for Dagenham's criticism...
Mr Malcolm Macmillan: Yes, if they like. We have been working for longer, better paid holidays for the working people and I am sure that the profession of my hon. Friend the Member for Putney (Mr. Hugh Jenkins) will support him in any movement of that kind. But there is now less need or excuse than ever there was to do away with the invaluable protection and safeguards for the seventh day, with protection against...
Mr Malcolm Macmillan: I appreciate what my hon. Friend says. I do not dispute that. I understand that the trading position is now, still some years later than when it was last said, under consideration by the Government, partly based on the Crathorne Report and other studies of that wider subject.
Mr Malcolm Macmillan: I am afraid that my speech does not require very much intervention to lengthen it; but, anyway, I am coming to an early conclusion now. The Bill itself is less acceptable because of the absence today of all the reasons which were debated in favour of Clause 4 of the earlier Bill. I do not think that we can just sweep aside the whole of the considered views of a Committee of this House on...
Mr Malcolm Macmillan: I endorse what my hon. Friend says about the attempt to do something about the Clause. I think it is a genuine attempt, although I do not think it is adequate.
Mr Malcolm Macmillan: I accept that part of the speech of the hon. Member for Glasgow, Pollok (Mr. Wright) in which he urged hon. Members to "dissent and debate: but violence—no!" I promise not to become violent, although I have found many of the general comments of hon. Members a little discouraging in their implications to us in Scotland. There is an assumption that we have reached in university provision the...
Mr Malcolm Macmillan: I would, if driven by desperation, accept that argument—if we were obliged to continue to live for all time without any industrial expansion and on our purely indigenous industries. I therefore do not accept the underlying basis of the hon. Lady's question. I agree, however, that there is room for a great deal of progress to be made in providing for studies and research in the fields to...
Mr Malcolm Macmillan: Mr. Malcolm Macmillan (Western Isles) rose—
Mr Malcolm Macmillan: I intervene only briefly to seek clarification on a point on broken journeys which are partly over water. I appreciate that on the proposals for the exclusion of certain areas we have the Minister's wording: The carriage of goods within and between offshore islands having no rail connection with the mainland This would include all the Scottish islands and the Isle of Wight, but would exclude...
Mr Malcolm Macmillan: The question I wish to ask is whether in this exclusion we are limited to within and between offshore islands. I would have liked to see the words "to and from" offshore islands. We have had a lot of debate on this point. I was not privileged to be a member of the Committee, but early in the history of the Bill I had correspondence with the previous Minister and discussions with a number of...
Mr Malcolm Macmillan: I am sorry, Mr. Speaker. I was emphasising that this is the main complaint which relates to my constituency. Otherwise, I have not received a single complaint from my constituency—[An HON. MEMBER: "Oh."] It is absolutely true. I hope that the hon. Gentleman does not doubt this. I should like to have the assurance which I have sought.
Mr Malcolm Macmillan: I shall be unaccustomedly brief on this occasion as there are other Bills to come which I expect most hon. Members want to support and debate, and so I shall make this speech as quickly as possible, but there are one or two points which raise considerations of very considerable importance. I do not know whether my hon. Friend the Member for Caithness and Sutherland (Mr. Maclennan) could be...
Mr Malcolm Macmillan: Of course, the hon. Member is speaking as an Englishman, and as an Englishman I quite agree that he has a point, but nowadays there is an emphasis on regional interests and policies and on regional development. For many years I have argued for differential subsidies and incentives, weighted heavily in favour of firms, prepared or officially pressed to set up and invest in areas of less...
Mr Malcolm Macmillan: Perhaps I might qualify the broad regional picture which the hon. Gentleman is painting with a rather narrower example. Taking the labour exchange area in my constituency, 24 or 25 per cent. of the employees registered are in manufacturing. The proportion in service industries is about a third. There are areas of that kind as well which benefit very much from the Selective Employment Tax premiums.
Mr Malcolm Macmillan: My hon. Friend the Member for Caithness and Sutherland, the chief sponsor of the Bill has referred to the irritation expressed by the hon. and gallant Member for Eye (Sir H. Harrison). Year after year in Committee on such Bills I, too, have moved this type of Amendment, because there is always such a sense of needless waste of time in this reference back. With long delays and ever mounting...
Mr Malcolm Macmillan: I appreciate that point and shall meet it; but a Highlands Bill comes before us only once in many years. While I sympathise with my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Northampton (Mr. Paget), I think he should have addressed his appeal to the hon. Member for Inverness (Mr. Russell Johnston) and other Members of the Liberal Party, who took up a lot of time with speeches earlier. The...
Mr Malcolm Macmillan: I cannot completely accept the Under-Secretary's interpretation that, if payment were made for a cricket scorecard, that would be a payment for entrance. That is questionable. Is it not rather payment after entrance? This is a small point, but there is some chronology in the argument which is important and cannot be disregarded. My hon. Friend said that the Bill liberalises sport and...
Mr Malcolm Macmillan: He spoke as the sponsor of the Bill, Mr. Speaker. …it is difficult, if not impossible, to draw a legal distinction between amateur and profes- sional sport and certainly difficult to draw a distinction in their ability to draw crowds."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, House of Lords; 21st November, 1966; Vol. 278, c. 18.] Crowds require many services apart from the actual entertainment. They require...
Mr Malcolm Macmillan: Last week, the Minister said that the Amendment was not necessary. Perhaps my hon. Friends have not consulted since that was said. This is my difficulty. The Minister's point was that either a person pays for the privilege of admission or he does not. That is impeccable as a mere statement of fact. It does not mean that either a person pays for admission or he does not pay for any goods or...
Mr Malcolm Macmillan: This is one occasion when I have not been wearied by rising nearly 20 times and not being called. I am so glad that the House of Commons has come back to its senses on this subject and that so many hon. Members wished to speak. It was led in that wiser direction by my right hon. Friend the Member for Llanelly (Mr. James Griffiths), who spoke with a voice which has hardly been heard in all the...
