Mr Ernest Davies: asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department the estimated net inward movement of immigrants into the United Kingdom from India, Pakistan and the Caribbean countries, respectively, for 1958 and for the current year to the latest available date.
Mr Ernest Davies: Will the hon. Lady state why regular and more frequent statistics dealing with immigrants are not published, as that would save putting Questions on the Order Paper when information is required? Do the figures include all entries, by air, sea and short sea routes?
Mr Ernest Davies: asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation what action he proposes to take on the recommendations of the Select Committee on Estimates on roads; and what consequential changes in the roads programme will be made.
Mr Ernest Davies: If the Report is now being studied and a detailed reply is to be submitted to the Committee, why did the Minister rush in and reject the Report before it had been given consideration? Would not the right hon. Gentleman agree that the remarks he made in his two speeches at Hendon and at Stamford rejected the Committee's findings and were insulting to the members of that Committee?
Mr Ernest Davies: asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation for what reasons he departed from the normal procedure of replying to the First Report of the Select Committee on Estimates relating to trunk roads by making a statement to the House or by sending a memorandum containing his observations to the committee.
Mr Ernest Davies: Is it not clear from that reply and from the earliest exchanges which have taken place that the Minister still does not regret the fact that he made this speech outside the House and that these so-called apologies which he has made are really those of a petulant child whose vanity has been offended? [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] Is it not a fact that he stated that this Report was misleading and...
Mr Ernest Davies: I beg to move, at the end of the Question to add: and while welcoming the progress being made in the modernisation and re-equipment of the railways, regrets the actions of Her Majesty's Government which have damaged the financial solvency of the British Transport Commission and led to the curtailment in the services it should render in the national interest". In the first third of his speech...
Mr Ernest Davies: I appreciate that, but in its Report the Commission publishes diagrams comparing present results with those of before the last war, and that, I think, is the significant period. That result is certainly not true of any consumer goods produced by private enterprise. This is a nationalised industry which, in real terms, has succeeded in keeping the cost of its services below the pre-war cost....
Mr Ernest Davies: I intended to deal with that point later. One of our charges against the Government is that their action in this respect is responsible for the Commission's present financial position—
Mr Ernest Davies: I am sorry, but I want to develop my argument. If, later, the hon. Member wishes to challenge me on certain aspects that I consider worthy of challenge I shall gladly give way, but I have much to say. The Parliamentary Secretary took some time—I make no complaint of that—and other hon. Members want to speak. We should not minimise the achievements of the Commission since 1948 despite the...
Mr Ernest Davies: The hon. Gentleman says, "At much too high a cost", but at that time the Commission was paying its way. When the Tory Government came in, a surplus was being earned and profits were being made.
Mr Ernest Davies: In the first place, the hon. Gentleman is wrong in assuming that they have gone down to the extent which he stated. In the second place, we all know that they have gone down because of the manner in which many private enterprise road haulage firms are operating. Their drivers are being worked beyond the statutory permitted number of hours, records are being falsified and the law is not being...
Mr Ernest Davies: I know perfectly well that when cases are brought to the Minister's attention he courteously refers them to the enforcement officers, but, as I have frequently stated, there are not enough enforcement officers. If the Minister wanted to enforce the law he could increase, and should increase, very substantially the number of enforcement officers. Concerning the cuts in services which the...
Mr Ernest Davies: I agree with my hon. Friend, and I regret that the Commission is not permitted to pursue that policy. The Government have presented this reappraisal Report to the House without really stating their attitude towards it except to accept the modernisation plan as it stands. The Parliamentary Secretary did not help us a great deal to understand what the Government's plan or policy is in regard...
Mr Ernest Davies: We made constructive suggestions in 1947.
Mr Ernest Davies: I do not think that the hon. Gentleman need get so excited over this. The policy which we laid down in the 1947 Act, as I pointed out in my speech, was working satisfactorily when the Tory Government came in in 1951. The policy of a planned, integrated, coordinated transport system which includes the renationalisation of road haulage is the policy to which we shall return when we get back...
Mr Ernest Davies: I never said so.
Mr Ernest Davies: I do not understand why the hon. Gentleman always puts words into my mouth and misinterprets what I said. Nobody can deny that one of the main problems which confronts transport today is the growth of private transport. I have said frequently that the increase in private motoring will continue. Nobody is against the growth of private transport, but there are cases where some control is...
Mr Ernest Davies: I think that the right hon. Gentleman is misinterpreting what my right hon. Friend and I said. We said not that it was the terms of the White Paper which were influenced by the Minister but the action which has been taken in regard to economies forced upon the Commission.
Mr Ernest Davies: Has the Leader of the House seen the Motion on the Order Paper, Trunk Roads (Minister's Speech), which has been signed by well over 100 right hon. and hon. Members? In view of the deplorable behaviour of the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation in attacking a Select Committee of the House outside its precincts, will the right hon. Gentleman find time to debate the matter, so that the...