Mr Robin Turton: Is my right hon. Friend aware that the plight of the pig farmer and the dairy farmer is desperate and that it is in the national interest to introduce measures of encouragement at an early stage, so that we can expand production and cut down an import bill which last year amounted to £2,300 million?
Mr Robin Turton: I want the hon. Member to be absolutely clear about this matter. Mr. Speaker's Conference was considering the election when we heard that an election might be imminent and we transferred our attention to this urgent matter. The Government therefore could not possibly have brought this recommendation to the House any earlier than today because we finished our consideration of it only at our...
Mr Robin Turton: What does the right hon. Gentleman mean by an amended Standing Order No. 9 procedure? That is not clear in the report.
Mr Robin Turton: There is a great deal in what the right hon. Member for Sheffield, Hillsborough (Mr. Darling) said on the recommendations about Question Time. What has not been considered is the power of Ministers to transfer Questions. If we had a European slot for the Chancellor of the Duchy and he was asked an inconvenient Question, it might be slotted away to another responsible Minister. The proposal...
Mr Robin Turton: I think that we now have it right. It is not the Standing Order No. 9 applications that succeed that take up the time but those that fail, and that is where the danger lies. If we say—as I gather the right hon. Member for Stepney interprets paragraph 88—that private Members but not Members of the Opposition have a right to claim an early debate, even although the matter is not urgent, I...
Mr Robin Turton: We shall have to wait for the publication of HANSARD The hon. Member for Berwick and East Lothian (Mr. Mackintosh) probably had a different hearing from me of what the Lord President said. I am aged and no doubt partly deaf whereas he is young and vigorous with acute hearing. I understood the Lord President to say that he accepted paragraph 72 of the report. If he did so and the committee did...
Mr Robin Turton: Knowing my hon. Friend, I expect that I shall be mentioning some of the questions that he will raise in his intervention. I have been a member of the Select Committee on Procedure for a fairly long time and many of our recommendations have been implemented by the House—but always the minor ones. The major important recommendations that would save parliamentary time have been disregarded....
Mr Robin Turton: asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many BE hearing aids he has contracted to buy in the first year of the scheme, and how many in subsequent years ; and what proportion of the hearing aids will be imported.
Mr Robin Turton: Is my hon. Friend aware that the welcome announcement of the new policy last July aroused the expectations of about I million partially deaf people in the country and that the mystery surrounding the implementation of this policy is causing a great deal of disappointment? Is he aware, further, of the suspicion that this mystery is connected with his disregard of tenders from home...
Mr Robin Turton: Is my right hon. Friend aware that the figures released this morning by the Bank of England, showing the continued increase in the money supply, are causing grave concern? Will he give urgent and renewed consideration to measures to correct that?
Mr Robin Turton: asked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will announce the date of starting work on the Malton bypass on the A64.
Mr Robin Turton: Is my right hon. Friend aware that there will naturally be disappointment at his inability to fulfil the promise made by his hon. Friend on 14th November? In reaching his decision, will he bear in mind that the York bypass scheme is due to start this year and will accentuate the problems in Malton? Unless the two schemes are synchronised there will be a standstill not only of traffic but of...
Mr Robin Turton: Is my right hon. Friend aware that there will be general satisfaction with the way in which British Ministers have stood up for our interests, both in the matter of the price of beef and on regional policy? On the question of beef, however, will my right hon. Friend give an assurance that the walk out of the French Minister will in no way affect the early announcement and implementation of...
Mr Robin Turton: asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the future of the hill cow, hill sheep, and winter keep subsidy schemes.
Mr Robin Turton: I am sure the whole farming industry will be very glad to hear that announcement, but is my hon. Friend aware that there is uncertainty about the winter keep scheme, and that in view of the escalation of feeding stuff costs it is very important for farmers in hill and marginal lands to have long-term assurances on this subject?
Mr Robin Turton: I must admit that when I decided, seven years ago, not to seek re-election the last thing I expected was that I would outlast the Clerk of the House. Therefore, it puts me in a difficult position. Looking around me, I see that the right hon. Member for Vauxhall (Mr. Strauss), my hon. Friend the Member for Tynemouth (Dame Irene Ward) and I represent the sole survivors of what one might...
Mr Robin Turton: Will there not be a gap in the early part of 1974 with particular reference to Hong Kong, whose exports of leather goods and textiles to this country will be hampered by coming under the Community's generalised preference scheme?
Mr Robin Turton: Will my right hon. Friend comment on the appraisal of the future growth rates made yesterday by the Director-General of the National Economic Development Office?
Mr Robin Turton: The right hon. Member for Lanark (Mr. Hart) rightly said that we must form our judgment on this from the facts as we know them. This is the essence of the issue between the two sides of the House. She quoted extensively from reports by Communist and Left-wing correspondents who have been expelled from Chile in recent weeks. Those reports did not correspond with reports from other...
Mr Robin Turton: In those elections he received fewer votes than in the municipal elections the previous year. He increased his share of the vote from 36 per cent. to 43 per cent., but he had dropped from 49 per cent. in the municipal elections. That was long before the events I am describing.