Mr Harold Wilson: We welcome the right hon. Gentleman's statement as giving British satellite technology and programmes a great boost; and his assurance that there will be a full debate on the allocation of satellite channels before any final decisions are taken is a wise decision. Is he aware that the committee appointed by the previous Government, which I chaired, and which first brought the issue of...
Mr Harold Wilson: What about the Open University?
Mr Harold Wilson: The hon. Gentleman knows that I am one of the most voracious readers of his history books. I always find them extremely accurate and entertaining. For that reason, I should not want the hon. Gentleman to fall into error tonight. He referred to the Open University. When I proposed the Open University, which I did before becoming leader of my party, the proposal was opposed in the House by the...
Mr Harold Wilson: I shall be brief, but I must first declare an interest—although not financial—as chancellor of Bradford university, one of a number of technological universities set up by the Governments of 1964–70 as part of the drive to help industry by increasing the number of technologically-trained recruits to engineering and related industries. My criticisms relate to two major retrograde...
Mr Harold Wilson: The hon. and learned Gentleman referred to the over-the-counter market now doing what we hoped it would. Will he say in how may cases it has been involved? He can count them on the thumbs of two hands.
Mr Harold Wilson: I hope that the right hon. Member for Farnham (Mr. Macmillan) will forgive me if I do not follow him exactly in the arguments that he presented to the House. I should like to deal mainly with the proposals of the Chancellor of the Exchequer for small businesses, offering one or two suggestions that I hope he will find helpful. First, I must refer to the right hon. and learned Gentleman's...
Mr Harold Wilson: Yes. We made that point, but we were reassured by the improvement in the arrangements made during the period that we were sitting not so much because we were sitting, but because of pioneering work by those who had reported before us, and because of the lead given by the NEDC. Not only our reports but much of the debate since have made it clear that much more is needed, and that the...
Mr Harold Wilson: Yes, we did. I do not have the figures with me, but in the report we showed that there had been not only an increase in pension funds and insurance companies but a heavy fall in the established savings media. It was almost equal to the increase experienced by the pension funds. There has been a complete switch in a period of only about 15 or 20 years. That aspect is summarised quite early in...
Mr Harold Wilson: Is the right hon. Lady aware—I think that she is—that with her agreement I refreshed my memory about what I was told about Sir Roger Hollis' pre-Civil Service connections at university and elsewhere? There were reasons for anxiety. However, two other persons—either Philby or Blunt, or both—would have been a sufficient cause for anxiety. The right hon. Lady referred to the Trend...
Mr Harold Wilson: I am grateful to the hon. Member for Winchester (Mr. Browne) for what he has said, and I think that we are all grateful to him for having chosen the opportunity granted him by success in the Ballot to enable the House to debate this somewhat voluminous and difficult report. The historians have told us that there have been 22 inquiries into the City of London and the financial institutions...
Mr Harold Wilson: That raises a very big issue, as my hon. Friend will see from studying the report. We have stressed that some of the pension funds should be more answerable to the people for whom they were set up. My hon. Friend knows more about the railway industry than I or many other hon. Members. I referred a few minutes ago to the fact that there seems to be, or has been in the past, little employee...
Mr Harold Wilson: When the main spate of Second Readings—usually held at this time of the year—has; been completed, will the right hon. Gentleman provide time to debate the final report of the committee of inquiry into the financial institutions, which was published more than six months ago? In that way we should be following the example of the Macmillan report, the Radcliffe report and, I think, every...
Mr Harold Wilson: I am a little concerned about the hon. Gentleman's reference to our final report. I am not sure whether he meant to imply that it was a terminal report or the final report of the Interim Action Committee before a successor body becomes the British Films Authority.
Mr Harold Wilson: I hope that it will help the Minister if I say that I agree with all that he has not said.
Mr Harold Wilson: In view of the references that have been made to my film committee, for which I am grateful, I must make clear that I am not attempting to represent the views of the committee in this debate, though the work that we have done and our first three reports provide some background to the Bill. Any legislative measure on films and the NFFC is bound to arouse a little nostalgia, which, in the...
Mr Harold Wilson: I entirely agree. To add to what has been said by my hon. Friend the member for Birmingham, Ladywood (Mr. Sever)—there is nothing I can subtract from it—the problem in the National Film School is that when young people enter straight from school or from the industry they are not able to get a grant during their first year though there are grants for the second, third and even fourth...
Mr Harold Wilson: I certainly agree with that qualification. Indeed, in the near future we shall have to consider what we can do to save independent television, which I think is in greater danger than any other institution in this country as a result of the development of satellites, to which I was about to refer. It is certainly possible for cable television to develop new programmes. I would never have...
Mr Harold Wilson: In connection with the papers, will the Government for their part make available to the inquiry the evidence for their statement to the United Nations in 1976 that the competent United Kingdom authorities, having examined the issues, were satisfied that there was no evidence of sanctions-breaking by any British company. That was said in September 1976. Will the Government give their full...
Mr Harold Wilson: As my right hon. and learned Friend knows, I pressed for this inquiry, and I want it to be a proper inquiry. Is he aware that there will be anxiety in the House and outside it if we have the system he is describing involving a Law Lord? I am making no reflection on the Law Lords, who have vast experience, although not always vast experience of administration and the conduct of industry, the...
Mr Harold Wilson: I am grateful to the Attorney-General for giving way again. Will he tell us what precedent there is for the distinction between members of a Committee set up by Parliament? Secondly, is he not proposing that the Committee shall consist of first and second-class members? Is it not an affront to hon. Members who are used to receiving highly sensitive and secret material in their membership of...
