Mr Merlyn Rees: Kondratieff.
Mr Merlyn Rees: Fifty years.
Mr Merlyn Rees: This will be my last speech in the House of Commons. If it were not, I would have been tempted to take up the point made by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury when he chided the Welsh rugby team for being so bad at Twickenham. That I agree with, but I found his nasty anti-Welshism nauseating. When I speak in Cardiff next week in a marginal Tory seat, the constituents will not be highly...
Mr Merlyn Rees: I would repeat it because I feel it, even if it were the last thing that I said in the House. I would join the right hon. and learned Gentleman in having a go at the Welsh rugby team, but not in having a go in the way that he does in the snobby phoney accent of outer London against a decent man whose only crime is that he has a Welsh valley accent. In most of my parliamentary career, I have...
Mr Merlyn Rees: If the Minister looks at the figures for 1951 and 1979 he will see that the relative increase is right, but the figures overall were falling. I shall come to that point in a moment. In no way will unemployment in my constituency be reduced by the upturn. That is not how the upturn works. It works in that way in the city, the suburbs and in the affluent middle of Leeds where there is a boom...
Mr Merlyn Rees: My hon. Friend knows that in south Wales, which I left many years ago, the work of the Japanese firms is to the credit of the area. They have brought in better management and they make a product. They are in manufacturing. I approve of that. The unemployment that I am concerned about is the unemployment in my constituency and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, Central. The reason...
Mr Merlyn Rees: I am grateful for that comment. Although he belonged to a slightly older generation than mine, my hon. Friend's father was of the same generation as my father, and came from the village round the corner. I have been away from that area for a long time, and I am proud to be a northern Member of Parliament, but I have never forgotten living in a home where we had very little. As I leave this...
Mr Merlyn Rees: The Chancellor mentioned in his speech yesterday the fact that some people hold that view. I felt a strong pang when he said it. Nowadays, people say that the failure of the Austrian banks in 1929–31 need not have happened if only the world banks had acted together, and I imagine that that is true. There is a danger that a similar position could arise now. The Secretary of State for...
Mr Merlyn Rees: It is my last go at this, and I am not just being wet, silly and soggy. Unless the whole House puts its mind to these problems, we will not get out of them. The Budget was a little like the Budgets of the 1930s. The first Budget that put its mind to accounting in the sense of savings and investment was that of 1941. I believe that there will be another Budget in a few weeks' time, whoever...
Mr Merlyn Rees: If the election were not to be held until May or June, would an announcement be made next time we have business questions?
Mr Merlyn Rees: As to strand 2—the north-south strand—of the talks to which the Secretary of State referred, the new Taoiseach announced that articles 2 and 3 would be on the table, and we all understand that. He said also that the Government of Ireland Act 1920 would be on the table. I studied it carefully this monring, better to understand what is involved. What has the Taoiseach said about that aspect...
Mr Merlyn Rees: I rarely speak or am active on guillotine motions and resulting business arrangements on timing, because in general I have long been in favour of timetabling all Bills from the start. My experience over many years is that Standing Committees and other similar Committees on the Floor of the House, with exceptions that I will come to in a moment, never give Bills the due consideration that they...
Mr Merlyn Rees: The right hon. Gentleman should not consider resigning over the affair in Dublin. The strong views expressed on both sides of the House—which in itself is unusual, divided as it is in its political structure—on the way that the right hon. Gentleman has carried out his job should send a clear message to the IRA: that it will not bomb its way to the conference table; it will not affect us...
Mr Merlyn Rees: Will the Leader of the House bear in mind the fact that there has been no debate on Northern Ireland for a long time? There are 10,000 British soldiers in Northern Ireland. We are debating everything else in advance of the general election but not Northern Ireland, so will he answer two questions? First, are talks taking place? I am advised that the press says that they are but that in...
Mr Merlyn Rees: rose——
Mr Merlyn Rees: rose——
Mr Merlyn Rees: On such an important issue, on which the Prime Minister went three ways, would it not be a good idea if he were to ask the learned Attorney-General to give his view to the House?
Mr Merlyn Rees: Is the Secretary of State aware that those of us who recall the area 40 years ago believe that the German-led policy is the height of folly? The Germans should recall their experiences in the area, when the fighting tied down seven German divisions. Can we be sure that if this goes wrong and there is military involvement —as there might well be—we will not be involved on the coat-tails of...
Mr Merlyn Rees: In the interests of time, and not wanting to abuse Privy Councillors' time, perhaps I should not refer to the speech made by the right hon. Member for Blaby (Mr. Lawson) except in one respect. I found his comments about federalism extremely interesting. A headline in The Times today states: Delors gives MEPs mocking account of Britain's stance. I simply say to Mr. Delors that I was in Vichy...
Mr Merlyn Rees: The fact that it would not work would make no difference. We should initiate change in the bureaucratic Commission. The right hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (Mr. Heath), a former Prime Minister, was not concerned about the bureaucratic Commission.