Mr Dave Nellist: Is the Prime Minister aware of today's reports that Secretary of State Baker has a list of 500 firms from 50 countries which have apparently broken the embargo on Iraq and that the list includes a large number of German firms which appear to be still supplying Iraq with biological and chemical materials? Will the Prime Minister reassure the House that no British firm is on that American list?...
Mr Dave Nellist: On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Will you confirm for my benefit and that of other people that you granted a private notice question today and that, contrary to what we were led to believe by the Leader of the House last night, the Government did not offer to make a statement? If they had done so, questions would have run for much longer and everyone who wished to speak would have been...
Mr Dave Nellist: On a point of order, Mr. Speaker.
Mr Dave Nellist: I do not intend to refer to the substance of any points raised, Mr. Speaker, but you will recall that, on a number of occasions, when a Minister of the Crown has responded to a point of order in this way, particularly on a second occasion as in this case—first to my hon. Friend the Member for Linlithgow (Mr. Dalyell) and then to the right hon. Member for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale...
Mr Dave Nellist: No. Let me finish my point. You have treated—
Mr Dave Nellist: Is my hon. Friend aware that the same thing happened on another occasion? In October 1988, the then Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office—now Secretary of State for Health—reported to the House that people known colloquially as "marsh Arabs", living in villages north of Basra—
Mr Dave Nellist: I am explaining that, Mr. Speaker.
Mr Dave Nellist: I am not making a point of order, Mr. Speaker; this is an intervention, and you would see its relevance if you allowed me to complete it.
Mr Dave Nellist: My hon. Friend the Member for Bradford, South (Mr. Cryer)—without being challenged on the ground that he is out of order—has mentioned an occasion when a certain event in Iraq resulted in a reward: the doubling of trade credits by the Government, under ECGD provision. I was reminding him that a similar event took place in October 1988, when the present Secretary of State for Health...
Mr Dave Nellist: On that point—
Mr Dave Nellist: During the lunchtime BBC news, the hon. Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Mr. Beaumont-Dark) said that anyone w ho voted against the motion was not fit to be a Member of this place. I shall explain why I shall be voting against the motion, along with many of my right hon. and hon. Friends. Those of us who vote in that way will not do so because we are against British troops. We are not in...
Mr Dave Nellist: The hon. Member for Gravesham (Mr. Arnold) says that it is pathetic. What discussion has there been on the effects of those bombs so that decisions taken here tonight or decisions taken in the country might be based on reality? Let me tell the House where they may be found. They may be found buried in page 14 of the Sunday Times of yesterday, which quotes Pentagon experts as having said that,...
Mr Dave Nellist: The hon. Gentleman knows that I have only 10 minutes. I cannot give way. This is unreal. The war in the middle east is not clean and clinical. The reality is that it is a horrible experience for many—and not just for civilians. Iraq's large army consists mainly of conscripts. If they do not serve they are hanged. I draw little distinction between Iraq's armed forces and its civilians when...
Mr Dave Nellist: Will the Leader of the House extend Monday's debate beyond 10 o'clock so that Mr. Speaker is not put in the invidious position whereby if the same Privy Councillors who have risen on each of the three previous occasions rise on Monday no time will be left for Back Benchers?
Mr Dave Nellist: How do the Prime Minister's instruction to British pilots, reported this afternoon, to minimise civilian casualties square with what President George Bush said at 2 am? He said that, unlike Vietnam, American forces in this war would not fight with one arm tied behind their backs". Since that war cost 57,000 American lives and 2 million Vietnamese lives, the right hon. Gentleman should,...
Mr Dave Nellist: Leaving aside my total opposition to this war, will the Foreign Secretary make the following suggestion at the next meeting of the war Cabinet? As war is not only terrible but terribly profitable and many companies, especially arms and oil companies will make a great deal of money in the weeks ahead, could that money be put to public good—confiscated if necessary—so that hospital beds...
Mr Dave Nellist: I was referring to the effect, not the purpose.
Mr Dave Nellist: Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr Dave Nellist: Will the right hon. Gentleman give way now?
Mr Dave Nellist: Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?