Mr Ivor Richard: Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that it is extremely important that the British Government's view on the desirability of legislation on the Byrd amendment should be made crystal clear in Washington? Will he undertake to take that action if he has not already done so? May I ask the right hon. Gentleman another question about Rhodesia? Is he aware that reports in the Press this week have...
Mr Ivor Richard: Is it the Government's view that the Republic of Guinea Bissau is in control of the territory of which it claims to be in control?
Mr Ivor Richard: May I follow that by asking ——
Mr Ivor Richard: With respect, I was called. It is for you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, not the hon. Member for Chigwell (Mr Biggs-Davison), to decide whether I am in order.
Mr Ivor Richard: Does it follow from what the Minister has just said that if the Government were satisfied that PAIGC was in control of the area, they would then be prepared to recognise the republic?
Mr Ivor Richard: The House may consider it a pity that the Prime Minister is not going to see President Nixon, since he might have been able to explain to him how the Government can conceivably reconcile their statement that the 16½ per cent. offered to the miners recognises that they are a special case with the other statement by the Government that if only the miners will accept the 16½ per cent. there...
Mr Ivor Richard: I come from a valley in South Wales, where I have spent a great deal of time in recent weeks. The hon. Gentleman is talking utter nonsense. The miners in South Wales are solidly behind the NUM executive, and no speech about reds under the bed, about militancy or about the sovereignty of Parliament will change that central fact.
Mr Ivor Richard: Can the right hon. Gentleman help a little more? Does he say that the possibility of this relaxation was foreseen when the three-day week was first introduced? If it was, why was the country not told so? If it was and if there was the possibility of a relaxation so far as the steel industry is concerned, why did he make such militant noises to an American newspaper?
Mr Ivor Richard: The right hon. Gentleman and the House will have noted the action taken yesterday by the United States Senate in relation to the Byrd amendment. Will the right hon. Gentleman say a kind word in favour of the United States administration? Does not the action that has now been taken in the United States in reversing its previous policy on imports of chrome re-emphasise the need not merely to...
Mr Ivor Richard: May we take it that in the discussions which have been taking place in the last few days between representatives of Saudi Arabia and the oil-producing countries and the British and French Governments, no demand has been made by the oil-producing countries that other European countries should cut down their exports to Holland?
Mr Ivor Richard: Not us?
Mr Ivor Richard: The right hon. Gentleman will doubtless have seen the remarks made—I think last week—by the French representatives at Western European Union, particularly about the possibility of an Anglo-French nuclear force which excluded the Americans and was outside the North Atlantic Treaty. Will the Government give a specific undertaking that in no circumstances will they consider the establishment...
Mr Ivor Richard: At the next meeting of the Council of Ministers, no doubt, the Government will wish to discuss a common energy policy for Europe. Will the right hon. Gentleman, in view of his last answer to me a few minutes ago, confirm that it is open to Common Market countries, if they wish, to increase the level of oil exports from the other Common Market countries to Holland, and that the Arab...
Mr Ivor Richard: I want to say how much we on the Labour benches agree with the last part of what the right hon. Gentleman has said. Broadly speaking his approach is absolutely correct. It is that at this stage, given the developments that seem to be taking place within Rhodesia, it would be foolhardy in the extreme to alter the pressures that seem to have produced that movement. Doing the best I can with the...
Mr Ivor Richard: If I can just finish my abuse I shall be happy to give way to the hon. Gentleman. Before we go through this charade again next November, perhaps the Government should think about introducing legislation—if this is needed, and I think it probably is under the 1965 Act—so that we can enact a policy of sanctions towards Rhodesia once and for all and that policy can be pursued until the...
Mr Ivor Richard: The hon. Gentleman has been in the House for a long time, and has sat on the Government and the Oppo- sition benches. From all the experience that he has garnered during his years in the House he surely does not think that Members of Parliament are so weak and cowardly as that. It is, after all, only 7.33 p.m. It is a Thursday evening, but I have no doubt that all the hon. Gentlemen present...
Mr Ivor Richard: Does the hon. and learned Member insist?
Mr Ivor Richard: Very well.
Mr Ivor Richard: Abstention is the last refuge of the weak. On an occasion when the Whips are not imposed on one side of the House it would be wrong of the hon. and learned Member to claim that all those who did not vote tonight abstained on his side of the argument rather than on the other side of the argument. Inertia is frequently a much more potent parliamentary weapon than is the conviction of not...
Mr Ivor Richard: Of course there is a possibility that individual nations will pursue policies which are inimical to British economic or political interests. But that is so anywhere else, and, in any event, Rhodesia is doing precisely that. What is interesting about Rhodesia's economic history over the past eight years is that she has transferred her markets away from the United Kingdom and elsewhere. All...
