Mr Dave Nellist: As tomorrow will be five years since the nuclear explosion and fire at Chernobyl, which was not only the worst peace-time nuclear accident—equal to 90 Hiroshimas—but the worst official cover-up, will the Leader of the House arrange for a statement to be made to allay the fears of the Ukrainian community in this country that 300,000 children and adults will die from radiation-induced...
Mr Dave Nellist: By the Soviet Government.
Mr Dave Nellist: indicated assent.
Mr Dave Nellist: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement about recent developments in the Gulf.
Mr Dave Nellist: What assessment have the Government made of the Amnesty International report on torture in Kuwait, which says that electric shocks, knives, whips, sulphuric acid, sexual assault and threats of execution have been used by Kuwaitis on Palestinians and others? Where is the democracy and respect for human rights that the Secretary of State told the House were at the base of the reason for the...
Mr Dave Nellist: Given that the Secretary of State has said today that the poll tax is dead, but not until 1993, how will he answer those with suspicious minds who will say that this has more to do with the pre-election strategy of the Tory party than with serious policy? He introduced a Bill to reduce this year's poll tax bills by £140 and his colleagues brought in the School Teachers' Pay and Conditions...
Mr Dave Nellist: If the Secretary of State wishes to make light of the matter, let me tell him that this is just one example of how deep anger already runs in Coventry among thousands of people who are not prepared to allow the hospital to be taken, over their heads, on the first step towards privatisation and got rid of. It is a publicly funded hospital, to provide whose equipment not a single family in...
Mr Dave Nellist: Why should the Kurds, the Shias or any other oppressed people trust western Governments, especially this Government and the Bush Administration, ever again? Clearly they were asked to rise up against a brutal dictator and, having put their trust in Governments—which I would not have done—perhaps bemused by the poetic phrases about the rights of small nations, they have been betrayed. Why...
Mr Dave Nellist: I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry, North-East (Mr. Hughes) and to the Minister for Social Securityy and Disabled People for allowing me a couple of minutes in which to raise two matters which I hope that the Minister will note. I appreciate the fact that the right hon. Gentleman has not had notice of my points, but if he will promise to write to me during the recess,...
Mr Dave Nellist: I do not wish to intrude on too much private grief between two ex-Chancellors of the Exchequer. On the review, can the Prime Minister tell us what justification there is, moral or financial, for telling pensioners and those on income support this week or next week that they should pay 20 per cent. of the poll tax and that 10.8 per cent. of their disposable income should go on VAT? Will that...
Mr Dave Nellist: Just before Christmas the Land Registry opened its records to anyone who wants to inquire about ownership of land or property, subject to a small fee. Does not the Minister think, therefore, that it would be a good idea for his Department to encourage councils and provide the finance to assist them to approach the Land Registry to find out about derelict or unoccupied land or houses so that...
Mr Dave Nellist: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what latest representations he has received about his review of the poll tax; and if he will make a statement.
Mr Dave Nellist: Is the Minister aware of representations made yesterday by a group of parents from Warwickshire—a Tory shire for almost an entire century—against the capping and underfunding of that Tory authority by a Tory Government? In the words of the hon. Member for Nuneaton (Mr. Stevens), the authority risks serious reductions in education provision for under-fives, the closing of homes for the...
Mr Dave Nellist: Will my hon. Friend confirm that the Census (Confidentiality) Bill was designed to reassure people that there was no link between the collection of the 10-yearly census information and the compilation of a poll tax register, which many people felt would prejudice the accurate collection of information on the census? Will he further confirm that the Government will not protect the electoral...
Mr Dave Nellist: Will the right hon. Gentleman deal with a point that I put in my speech? What is the Government's position in relation to the 18·5 million people whom the Prime Minister has identified as being seriously in arrears on this year's poll tax? I am thinking of the family in Coventry to whom I spoke on the telephone tonight, who have been charged £19 for the 19 days of this financial year for...
Mr Dave Nellist: There is a certain pleasure in seeing the rout of the Government over the past eight days. Eight days is, indeed, a long time in politics, because it was only last Monday that the Prime Minister spoke to Tory Back Benchers, explaining that the poll tax was "uncollectable" because of the number of people not paying it and the courts being overloaded. On Tuesday, the Chancellor made his...
Mr Dave Nellist: You will notice, Madam Deputy Speaker, that a Conservative Member has said, "Good." Presumably he is the same hon. Member who voted for the Tories to change the law in November 1988 so that no one in Scotland could go to prison for being in debt. That can happen only in England and Wales. I pay tribute also to those who lost their liberty through arrest during the past two years, most...
Mr Dave Nellist: I am afraid that I cannot give way, as I know that other hon. Members want to speak. Why are the Government in retreat? It is certainly not because they have seen the error of their ways or realised the injustice and unfairness of the poll tax. They have not even offered to reinstate the social security cuts, the axing of benefits to 16 and 17-year-olds, or the ending of housing benefit in...
Mr Dave Nellist: It may be that not much in the timetable motion divides the Leader of the House and me. I try to learn while I am here, and precedents can be very useful. If I agree to support the right hon. Gentleman today, will he give me a guarantee that, under a future Labour Government, if I introduce a Bill, to go through in one day, to abolish the House of Lords or to give a Labour Secretary of State...
Mr Dave Nellist: The Prime Minister said on Monday night that the poll tax was uncollectable because so many people were not paying it and the courts were overloaded. Does the Secretary of State realise that, despite the rout today and on Tuesday, in the words of a saying, it is not over until it is over, and it is not even over then? There are 15 million people in Scotland, England and Wales facing...