Mr Doug Hoyle: Further to that point of order, Madam Speaker.
Mr Doug Hoyle: On a point of order, Madam Speaker. You may have see in press reports that the court case at the Old Bailey against three executives from Matrix Churchill has now collapsed because the Department of Trade and Industry cannot sustain the case. The case has lifted the cloak of secrecy on the arms that went to Iraq. Will the President of the Board of Trade come along and make a full statment on...
Mr Doug Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what effect he estimates the introduction of the national lottery will have on charitable income.
Mr Doug Hoyle: Will the right hon. Gentleman confirm that 85 per cent. of the money raised by the national lottery will go in taxes, administration and prize money and that only 15 per cent. will go not just to charities but to sports, the arts, heritage and so on? Given those figures, is it not right that charities should be alarmed that the introduction of a national lottery would mean a loss of £232...
Mr Doug Hoyle: Will the Minister give way?
Mr Doug Hoyle: I interrupt the Minister only because he referred to something that I said. Is he now saying that the conditions negotiated centrally under Whitley will continue?
Mr Doug Hoyle: Hon. Members will not be surprised to hear that I shall not be following the hon. Member for Surrey, East (Mr. Ainsworth) down the path, whatever it was, that he trod. My hon. Friends' interruptions showed that he does not have any real knowledge of civil servants or the civil service. I regret that the Secretary of State so hastily left the Chamber after delivering an inadequate speech,...
Mr Doug Hoyle: The point of my noble Friend's speech was that it was the ultimate intention of the Government to bring about the privatisation of the civil service, even though this might not be the Bill by which that would be achieved. That flies in the face of everything that the Secretary of State has said. No wonder civil servants are alarmed. Let us not forget that the Whitley committees will be...
Mr Doug Hoyle: Further to that point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. The information came about only as a result of the question that I asked the Prime Minister this afternoon. If I had not asked the question, we would not have been privy to the information or the double-dealing that has taken place between the Government and the discredited army led by the Home Guard captain.
Mr Doug Hoyle: Long overdue.
Mr Doug Hoyle: Disgraceful.
Mr Doug Hoyle: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 5 November.
Mr Doug Hoyle: Will the Prime Minister repeat in the House the assurance that he gave to the hon. Member for Great Yarmouth (Mr. Carttiss) that he would not introduce the Third Reading of the Maastricht Bill until after the second Danish referendum? Does that not show that there was no limit to the wriggling of the Prime Minister in his attempt to obtain votes in the Lobby last night?
Mr Doug Hoyle: Will the Prime Minister stop wringing his hands at the Dispatch Box in an attempt to explain to his Back Benchers the cosmetic changes to Maastricht? Why did he not seize the opportunity at Birmingham to sell British coal from the most efficient coal industry in Europe to our European partners instead of announcing last week plans to butcher that industry?
Mr Doug Hoyle: In those days the President of the Board of Trade was called the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. I pointed out in an intervention the difficulty that will confront us if, in addition to the matters that will have to be looked into by the Select Committee on Trade and Industry, other items concerned with energy must be addressed. I am glad that the hon. Gentleman is underlining my...
Mr Doug Hoyle: Does my hon. Friend not agree with me that the difficulty is that, in energy, many problems confront us, not least the privatisation of coal, the rising prices of electricity and gas and the lack of a real voice for the consumer? If we look at what is happening in trade and industry, the need for an effective watchdog, the continuing recession, and the need to look at crises in the City, at...
Mr Doug Hoyle: When will we get the Government's response to the report of the Top Salaries Review Body? Will it be next week? Will the right hon. Gentleman inform the Prime Minister that their response should take the form of a statement to the House and not a reply to a written question?
Mr Doug Hoyle: As the Prime Minister has read the reports in the Financial Times, he must be aware that they mention not only Maxwell but other national companies being under surveillance. If that is so, will the right hon. Gentleman say who signed the warrants allowing that to take place?
Mr Doug Hoyle: Does the Chancellor intend to recommend that a Select Committee should be set up?
Mr Doug Hoyle: Has the Leader of the House seen the reports about another 720 redundancies at British Aerospacee in the dynamics division at Blostock, Stevenage and Fulton? Those redundancies follow earlier job losses at British Aerospace. Will the right hon. Gentleman ask his right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry—or the President of the Board of Trade or whatever he calls...