Mr Eric Varley: Is the Secretary of State aware that trade unions need no lessons from him about democracy, and certainly not from the Tory party, which is riddled with privilege and thrives on patronage? Does he realise that no one will take the right hon. Gentleman seriously on political levies unless at some stage he announces to the House of Commons that he will introduce legislation to make it possible...
Mr Eric Varley: Will the Secretary of State confirm that he will be the first Secretary of State since the war under whom the number of people in work has been fewer than when he took office? Secondly, will he confirm that he personally was responsible for advising the Prime Minister to scuttle to a June election because the unemployment figures in September will rise dramatically?
Mr Eric Varley: I do not think that the most charitable hon. Member can say that the Secretary of State has contributed much to good industrial relations in the 25 minutes that he has spent at the Disatch Box. When he calls for orderly debate I immediately think of the years that he spent before 1979 sitting below the Gangway, and of him having graduated to some academy of good parliamentary behaviour. He is...
Mr Eric Varley: I am not giving way to the Secretary of State. It is not worth it.
Mr Eric Varley: I am usually willing to give way to the right hon. Gentleman, but he spoke for 25 minutes, with scant regard for anything concerning industrial relations, so I shall not give way to him tonight—not until he treats the House with much more respect. As I was saying—[Interruption.] It is no good the Secretary of State's shouting. He had better learn that he is not pushing around civil...
Mr Eric Varley: When will the Secretary of State produce a Green Paper on democracy in employers associations, and especially on the undemocratic and unauthorised company donations to the Conservative party that have neither the consent nor the approval of ordinary shareholders?
Mr Eric Varley: When will the level of unemployment return to that which the Government inherited on 4 May 1979?
Mr Eric Varley: Why does not the Secretary of State say that he does not know? In the light of yesterday's report by the director general of the National Economic Development Office, is it not a fact that the Conservative party's campaign before the general election stated that unemployment would be reduced from the then "unacceptable" level, and was that not a campaign of sheer hypocrisy?
Mr Eric Varley: rose—
Mr Eric Varley: It is apparent from the debate that Conservative Members are opposed to a minimum statutory wage and that they take a long time to tell us about it. The Minister of State, Treasury spoke for about 50 minutes, and the hon. Member for Harborough (Mr. Farr) took a long time to tell the House that he opposes a statutory minimum wage. I hope to detain the House for only 15 minutes, because I know...
Mr Eric Varley: Does the Secretary of State appreciate that some of the hostility of the TUC towards him, and perhaps to some of his colleagues, is because they have given the impression over the past three years that their only policy towards the trade unions is mass unemployment, the whip of unemployment and oppressive legislation? Will he take this opportunity to say that what distinguishes a democracy...
Mr Eric Varley: rose—
Mr Eric Varley: The Secretary of State implies that present policies are working. How can that be so when 2·5 million people have lost their jobs, when plant after plant has been forced to close, when manufacturing production is down by one fifth and investment by one third, and when over the past four years our national wealth has been reduced by 5·5 per cent? If that is success, God help us when the...
Mr Eric Varley: Dracula.
Mr Eric Varley: In view of the Government's White Paper on public expenditure last week, which predicts that unemployment will rise by a further 280,000 in the next financial year, when does the Secretary of State expect unemployment to start to fall? Bearing in mind the figures that he has given for the west midlands, does he agree that it takes a special kind of incompetence to turn what was once regarded...
Mr Eric Varley: I should like to press the Secretary of State on the question that was asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Bassetlaw (Mr. Ashton). Is he being serious? Will he at some stage place before the House a Green Paper telling us how individual shareholders will be consulted and allowed to contract out before they contribute to Tory party funds? If he does not do that, the existing paper will be...
Mr Eric Varley: Does the Secretary of State recall that immediately before the last general election the Prime Minister told the country that there was nothing inevitable about unemployment, with the clear indication that the Tory Government would bring unemployment down? Is it not clearly accepted by the Government that they will fight the next general election with record unemployment and that they will do...
Mr Eric Varley: Has the Secretary of State any word of hope or comfort for the unemployed this Christmas? Will 1983 bring any change in employment prospects? The right hon. Gentleman will recall that before the last election the Prime Minister said that there was nothing inevitable about unemployment. Unemployment then stood at 1·3 million. Now it is well over 3 million. What has gone wrong? What will the...
Mr Eric Varley: All that hides the fact that unemployment has gone up by 2 million over the three and a half years that the Government have been in power. If the Secretary of State wants to give a row of statistics, why does he not give these statistics? For example, the tax burden has gone up for everyone other than the very rich; one-fifth of our manufacturing industry has been destroyed and investment has...
Mr Eric Varley: Every Opposition Member who has taken part in the debate has said that this is a sad day for the House. It should be a day of shame. We have noted the Conservative Members who have taken part in the debate. When we have employment debates we are usually graced with the presence of the chairman of the Conservative employment group, the hon. Member for Mid-Sussex (Mr. Renton), but today he...
