Mr Dave Nellist: It has an elected council.
Mr Dave Nellist: The Minister should withdraw that.
Mr Dave Nellist: On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Is it in order for a political term such as "Fascism" to be applied to democratically-elected Members of the House? Will you give a ruling?
Mr Dave Nellist: The Minister has admitted that he was saying it in this direction.
Mr Dave Nellist: Taking the Prime Minister's remarks today, and previously, about unemployment benefit and the amount of food for which that would pay, together with the fact that the Cabinet sat down on 21 June to a meal costing £23·50 per person, could the Prime Minister explain to the House what it feels like to eat a meal that cost 90 per cent. of a single person's dole payment?
Mr Dave Nellist: Thank you for calling me to make my maiden speech, Mr. Deputy Speaker. It is especially appropriate for me to speak about youth and unemployment because in the city of Coventry, once the richest working-class city in the country with two thirds of the work force in manufacturing industry, the prospects for our school leavers are now bleak. Only one in 10 of those leaving the fifth form last...
Mr Dave Nellist: rose—
Mr Dave Nellist: Since submitting this subject for the ballot on 20 July, just a few days ago, the position in Sri Lanka has worsened dramatically for the workers and peasants there. In the early edition of The Times today appears a report from Reuter's correspondent in Colombo which begins: The Sri Lankan Government imposed a 15-hour curfew on Colombo and several other parts of the country yesterday …...
Mr Dave Nellist: No. The debate lasts for one and a half hours, so there is plenty of time for everyone to speak. Tamil workers were brought in by the British to work on the tea estates. Of those 1,200,000 Indian Tamils, 975,000 were officially declared stateless in 1964. Since then, agreement with India has meant that 600,000 were to be repatriated to India over 15 years while the rest were to remain in Sri...
Mr Dave Nellist: That is rubbish.
Mr Dave Nellist: If the hon. Gentleman reads the introduction, he will learn why.
Mr Dave Nellist: No.
Mr Dave Nellist: I made it clear on three occasions that I stand implacably opposed to the methods of terrorism because they are no real substitute for achieving social change for the mass of population. They provide an excuse for Governments to introduce repressive measures. That, for me, is a principle. Individual terrorism, whether it involves the most genuine elements such as the Robin Hoods robbing the...
Mr Dave Nellist: From the earliest days of my political life in the early 1970s and coming from the midlands where, particularly in the mid-1970s young workers died, I have always opposed, whether in Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka or elsewhere, the use by the IRA, by the Tigers about which the hon. Member for Northampton, South thinks I know nothing, by the Tupamaros or any of the organisations of Latin America,...
Mr Dave Nellist: Show me a country where capitalism is working.
Mr Dave Nellist: Does the hon. Gentleman agree that one of the prime causes of the decline in apprenticeships in the west midlands is that an employer prefers to employ someone free under the youth training scheme, for which the Manpower Services Commission provides funds? The rapid decline in apprenticeships is running concurrent with the rise in the number of schemes introduced by the Government, which are...
Mr Dave Nellist: rose—
Mr Dave Nellist: The hon. Gentleman referred to hardship, affluence and over-manning. Can he explain how all of those could have operated together in one company, GEC in my constituency, where redundancies have been declared in recent weeks in two plants, short-time working has been introduced and the company has asked the Government for short-time subsidy, yet the firm has over £1·1 billion in the bank...
Mr Dave Nellist: rose—
Mr Dave Nellist: The right hon. Gentleman has used the expression "free world" to describe the conditions pertaining in Grenada. What freedom can exist on that island when the per capita income is £400 per year?