Mr Dave Nellist: Is it not clear that the freeze in real training budgets which the Chancellor announced today means that yet again there will be no increase in the abysmal level of youth training allowances? Had those allowances, which were introduced in April 1978, risen in line with the level of average earnings, youngsters on youth training schemes would be on £68 a week—about £40 more than the...
Mr Dave Nellist: Will the Prime Minister tell us whether the council tax legislation will include the existing provision in the poll tax legislation for the imprisonment of non-payers? Is he aware that of the 84 people who have so far served a prison sentence, many have been pensioners? The oldest such person is Richard Northover, who, at 80 years old, was sentenced to 30 days in Her Majesty's prison in...
Mr Dave Nellist: The right hon. Gentleman said "can't".
Mr Dave Nellist: Does the Minister accept that unemployed workers in the west midlands, adjacent to Warwickshire, face almost twice the unemployment to vacancy ratio, at 37·6 per cent., as in the remainder of the country? Is not it therefore twice as hard to escape from the dole queue? Was not that position made immeasurably more difficult last week when 1,300 mining jobs in Coventry and Warwickshire were...
Mr Dave Nellist: Were the Bill to be passed this afternoon, the House would be seeking to take powers to decide for the electorate who could and could not stand or sit as a Member of this place. Those powers would go wide of the existing powers. You and I have crossed on a couple of occasions, Mr. Speaker, and I know that you have powers, subject to the resolution of the House, temporarily to suspend an hon....
Mr Dave Nellist: My hon. Friend the Member for Broadgreen went to prison to stop people such as Bill Jones and others being sent to prison. Two weeks ago, in Northumberland, a 69-year-old pensioner, Norman Cassidy, was put in prison for 90 days for owing £62. That is one day for every 69p that he owed. When Ronson went in prison, the sum was £30,000 for every day served. My hon. Friend the Member for...
Mr Dave Nellist: I take your point, Mr. Speaker. I contend that we are faced with mediaeval barbarity. My hon. Friend the Member for Broadgreen went to prison to try to put a stop to it. If any of us have to follow him, I think that it will be a price worth paying, to quote someone else's words. The hon. Member for Northfield seeks to introduce a Bill which would disqualify my hon. Friend from taking his...
Mr Dave Nellist: rose——
Mr Dave Nellist: This is on a point of order of which I have given you notice, Mr. Speaker. Have you received from the Secretary of State for Energy a request to make a statement on the disgraceful announcement at lunchtime on the closure of Coventry colliery at Keresley with the loss in my city of 1,300 jobs? If such a statement were made, do you agree that it would be totally in order to point out that the...
Mr Dave Nellist: May I give the apology of my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry, North-East (Mr. Hughes), whose brother-in-law died earlier this morning, in whose constituency Walsgrave hospital is located and on whose behalf as well as my own I ask the following question? What guarantee can the Secretary of State give us that, after opt-out, Walsgrave hospital will remain a hospital? Is he aware of what...
Mr Dave Nellist: Could the Leader of the House arrange for an urgent debate on poll tax enforcement procedures? Is he aware that on Tuesday, on Tyneside, Susan Monson, a mother of three, was gaoled for three months—the longest sentence ever imposed for the "offence" of which she was found guilty —for inability to pay the poll tax? The fact was recognised this morning when the Tyneside council concerned...
Mr Dave Nellist: The Minister will be aware of the case on which I have corresponded with her and the Secretary of State and which I raised with the Prime Minister about three weeks ago of a young junior hospital doctor who worked almost 120 hours during his first week at a hospital and who, at the end of those seven days, collapsed and died. Given that the agreement of which the Minister has spoken this...
Mr Dave Nellist: Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. Would not it be in order for you to point out, just in case it crosses the minds of Conservative Members, that, according to the rules of the House, there is no question of disqualification of a Member who is sentenced to a custodial sentence of less than one year? The last time that that happened was with John Stonehouse. To my recollection, not...
Mr Dave Nellist: Will the Leader of the House find time before the recess to arrange for further discussion on the "fortress Europe" statement on political refugees which was made by the Home Secretary last week, so that we can, in general, answer some of the rabid comments of the Tory right to the effect that Britain is being swamped by people from an alien culture and specifically raise an answer that I...
Mr Dave Nellist: On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I do not wish to go over the ground of this afternoon's statement, but I should like to know whether you have received a request for the Government to explain, by means of another statement, whether they have any powers to prevent the entry into the United Kingdom of an EEC national—M. Le Pen, who is due to address a conference in two days' time at the—
Mr Dave Nellist: No, it is not.
Mr Dave Nellist: On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. May I finish the point of order that I raised earlier? This place is, in a sense, the guardian of law and order in this country. I am asking for your ruling on how we seek to raise the fact that, given the nature of the individual concerned, there might be problems on Thursday with a noted racist such as Le Pen addressing a conference a few hundred yards from...
Mr Dave Nellist: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 2 July.
Mr Dave Nellist: Is the Prime Minister aware that 16-year-olds on youth training have had their allowance frozen at £29·50 for several years and that, had their allowance risen since 1978 in line with average earnings, it would be £68·60 today? How does the Prime Minister think that those youngsters feel when they again read reports in the press that the heads of newly privatised industries such as...
Mr Dave Nellist: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 25 June.