Mr Norman Tebbit: I must apologise; I was trying to follow the right hon. Gentleman's argument, but my attention lapsed for a moment. I therefore did not hear him say whether he thinks that the Government should have joined the ERM, whether interest rates should be kept high to keep purchasing power out of the hands of people who have mortgages or whether they should be cut. I am a little confused about what...
Mr Norman Tebbit: It is always a privilege to follow the hon. Member for Eccles (Miss Lestor), because she always speaks with great sincerity on these matters. However, she should not think, because Conservative Members may take a different view of the way in which those problems are best resolved, that we are less conscious of them. I did not have to wait to become a Member of Parliament for a seat in the...
Mr Norman Tebbit: That was one of the reasons. Perhaps some of the other reasons were even uglier than the quarrel over that policy. I do his former right hon. Friends the favour of saying that he walked out over policy rather than style. The second remarkable speech was that made today by my right hon. Friend the Member for Cirencester and Tewkesbury (Mr. Ridley). He chose to make his resignation speech in a...
Mr Norman Tebbit: The hon. Gentleman makes the fatal error of failing to distinguish between what is in effect a common or linked currency and a single currency. Such monetary discipline as there is in the Republic of Ireland is imposed by the need of the Chancellor there to maintain some value for his currency relative to that of sterling. That is the discipline. If people in the Republic of Ireland wanted to...
Mr Norman Tebbit: I hope that my hon. Friend will excuse me from allowing him to intervene. Many other hon. Members wish to speak, and I do not intend to detain the House for much longer. The right hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne also made a significant point about the relationship between the Gennan federal authorities and the Bundesbank. He said that, at the end of the day, on big issues, the politicians...
Mr Norman Tebbit: Do the hon. Gentleman's constituents have any interest in whether they should have the right, as citizens of this kingdom, to fire the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the day, whether he is a British Chancellor or, under the idealised system promoted by the hon. Gentleman, a Euro fed Chancellor?
Mr Norman Tebbit: Let me put to the right hon. and learned Gentleman the proposition that the hard ecu is, in essence, a swift path to the river that one would have to bridge to reach the single currency on the other side. It is a swifter way to arrive at that point of decision. Is the right hon. and learned Gentleman saying that there are circumstances in which he would say that he was satisfied on the...
Mr Norman Tebbit: Does my right hon. Friend agree that the mark of a single currency is not only that all other currencies must be extinguished but that the capacity of other institutions to issue currencies must also be extinguished? In the case of the United Kingdom, that would involve Parliament binding its successors in a way that it has hitherto regarded as unconstitutional.
Mr Norman Tebbit: My hon. Friend is not quite correct. Article 14(2), on special circumstances, states: The Governor may allocate up to 75 points to an applicant if he considers that there is an exceptionally high propensity to emigrate amongst those serving in the relevant occupation or amongst a particular group of persons serving in that occupation. I do not want to push the matter to the extent of saying...
Mr Norman Tebbit: My hon. Friend misunderstands me. I know that the Act is based upon partiality and favouritism. The amount of discretion in exercising partiality and favouritism which is extended to the Governor is quite enormous. He can even decide, according to the order, not to give points for a particular qualification if he does not like it; he can add qualifications which are not included if he likes...
Mr Norman Tebbit: How does one define a qualifying group? Could it be of Wykehamists or Old Etonians?
Mr Norman Tebbit: Will my hon. Friend give way?
Mr Norman Tebbit: My hon. Friend has not answered my points.
Mr Norman Tebbit: At this stage in our consideration of this legislation there is no point in attempting, even if it were not for the fact that it would be out of order, to go over the general principles of the Act. It is curious, however, that we can scarcely discuss details without reflecting upon the Act as a whole. Some of the provisions that are before us may appear to be erratic or peculiar, but they are...
Mr Norman Tebbit: My right hon. Friend knows that, like a number of my right hon. and hon. Friends, I am rather an agnostic about the ERM itself. On balance, I believe that, at the moment, our entry is probably more likely to be helpful than unhelpful——
Mr Norman Tebbit: Yes, in the short term. However, what worries me, like many other hon. Members, including the right hon. and learned Member for Monklands, East (Mr. Smith), is whether it will lead to a single currency and, therefore, to a single Government. Will my right hon. Friend be a little more robust in what he says? He has said that the Government are unequivocally opposed to the Delors plan, but will...
Mr Norman Tebbit: I am grateful to my right hon. Friend because he has come a long way along the road to making this matter clear—[Interruption.] Of course, it is correct that entry into the ERM, the hard ecu or even the fact that today's date is 23 October could lead at some time—if people wanted it to—to a common currency. I am asking my right hon. Friend to confirm that the Government are irrevocably...
Mr Norman Tebbit: The right hon. and learned Gentleman has been dealing with the conditions set out by the Prime Minister at Madrid some time ago, but he will recollect that this afternoon the right hon. Member for Bethnal Green and Stepney (Mr. Shore) asked how many of the conditions set out by the right hon. and learned Gentleman in his Labour party policy document 12 months ago had been satisfied. Does not...
Mr Norman Tebbit: May I draw your attention, Sir, to the fact that—quite inadvertently, I am sure—you referred to the occasion "when" this House would take the decision to extend the televising of the House. You did not put in the word "if. You should emphasise that no decision has been taken to make the televising of our proceedings a permanent feature. That is a decision for the House. I am sure that...
Mr Norman Tebbit: I ask my hon. Friend to contemplate the arguments that he has been deploying this evening. In response to many points put to him, he has argued that the Bill is designed not to bring immigrants to the United Kingdom but to give them an assurance that will obviate the necessity for them to come here. But on this particular point, my hon. Friend says that we cannot give these people the...