Mr Nigel Fisher: asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received about the present level of deposit required for parliamentary candidates.
Mr Nigel Fisher: Will my right hon. Friend bear in mind that the £150 deposit was introduced as long ago as 1918 to discourage frivolous candidatures and that after Bermondsey, with 16 candidates, and Darlington, with eight, clearly it is no longer any sort of deterrent? Will my right hon. Friend consider raising the deposit to, say, £2,000, which today is roughly the equivalent of what £150 was in 1918?
Mr Nigel Fisher: The hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Mr. Hooley) was probably right in saying that successive British Governments gave Argentina the impression that we would not defend the Falkland Islands if and when it came to the crunch. We tried to string them along, and succeeded for a long time, but eventually the Argentine junta lost patience with our delaying tactics and chanced its arm with the...
Mr Nigel Fisher: I hope that the hon. Member for South Ayrshire (Mr. Foulkes) will forgive me for not following the points he has made, because I want to be very brief. I know that many hon. Members on both sides of the House wish to take part in the debate, which started very late this afternoon. The updated Shackleton report is so thorough and so comprehensive in its scope that any attempt to cover all or...
Mr Nigel Fisher: In more than 32 years in the House I have never before tried to speak in a timetable debate. They are usually unproductive and repetitive. I do so today because the Government are well justified in tabling the motion and because the circumstances with which we are faced are unusual. The Bill has already kept the Committee sitting for four days and four long and weary nights. I understand that...
Mr Nigel Fisher: Despite the comments of my right hon. Friend about economic sanctions, may I revert to the point made by the right hon. Member for Plymouth, Devonport (Dr. Owen)? As Mr. Haig's valiant efforts to mediate have now apparently ended for the time being by the decision of the Argentine Foreign Minister, will my right hon. Friend reconsider the position and suggest to the United States Government...
Mr Nigel Fisher: Will my right hon, Friend keep an open mind about the suggestion of a United Nations presence? If that were offered by the United Nations, it might be the very factor to induce the Argentines to withdraw peaceably. With a United Nations presence, a referendum of the Falkland Islanders could take place, and we all know the probable result of that. That would be a good interim measure.
Mr Nigel Fisher: Hitherto, Britain's policy for the Falkland Islands has been genuinely bipartisan. Neither side of the House has ever made any attempt in the long drawn out negotiations with the Argentine to make party political capital. We have all been united in our support of the Falkland Islands, but I must honestly say to my right hon. Friends on the Front Bench that they cannot have expected a...
Mr Nigel Fisher: My hon. Friend keeps repeating that we shall stay in the area and help the islanders to the "best of our ability". The trouble is that we have not got the ability. HMS "Endurance" is better than nothing, but in the circumstances it is not enough. What else do the Government propose to do?
Mr Nigel Fisher: As Monday is Commonwealth Day, may I draw my right hon. and hon. Friends' attention to early-day motions 259 and 274, which stand in the names of right hon. and hon. Members on both sides of the House? [That this House joins with all other Commonwealth Parliaments in the observance of Commonwealth Day on 8th March, and with the work of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association which brings...
Mr Nigel Fisher: Is my right hon. Friend aware of the public concern at the increasing number of offences of rape? If, as I understand it to be the case, my right hon. Friend has ordered a review of that problem, could she state what form it will take and how long it will take to be completed?
Mr Nigel Fisher: Will my hon. Friend bear in mind that in some of the most difficult areas of Belfast the percentage of unemployed, especially Catholic unemployed, is far higher than in the Province as a whole, and that this constitutes an added problem?
Mr Nigel Fisher: I have just returned from a week in Gibraltar, where deep and genuine anxiety about the Bill is not just widespread but universal. Business men, politicians of every party and the proverbial man in the street are all united in their fears and apprehensions. I do not believe that Gibraltar's interests are in practice prejudiced by the Bill. I tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade all the people...
Mr Nigel Fisher: Will my right hon. Friend bear in mind that, although the CAP, the fisheries issue and the weight of heavy lorries are important matters, it is even more important to work for greater cohesion and collaboration in reaching common defence and foreign policies with the EEC?
Mr Nigel Fisher: Will my right hon. Friend express a view on the question whether the police might have used tear gas to disperse the rioters, because that might have saved many police casualties? Will he bear in mind for the future that if the police had organised a pincer movement it would have reduced the area of the looting?
Mr Nigel Fisher: As deputy chairman of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, of which my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister is chairman and Mr. Speaker is president, may I draw the attention of my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House to early-day motion 212? [That this House wishes to be associated with all other Commonwealth Parliaments in the observance of Commonwealth Day on 9th March, which...
Mr Nigel Fisher: I am grateful for the opportunity to take part in this short debate, because I was very much involved in the earlier stages of the long and not very happy St. Kitts-Anguilla saga, which it is to be hoped the Bill brings to an end. It all began in 1967, with the rebellion of the Anguillans against the Government of St. Kitts. Efforts by Commonwealth Office Ministers to mediate between the two...
Mr Nigel Fisher: Will my right hon. Friend bear in mind that both Ministers and hon. Members are underpaid in relation to any other comparable Parliament? Nevertheless, most of us are prepared to take our usual place at the bottom of the queue so as to set an example in the public sector. However, the least that we can expect is that Members' pensions should still be geared to the notional figure based on...
Mr Nigel Fisher: Will my hon. Friend bear in mind that amendment Bills have been introduced into this House by private Members year after year, and all have failed, not on their merits, but for lack of parliamentary time? If he does not wish to legislate himself on this controversial subject, which I can well understand, will he at least arrange through the Leader of the House and the Chief Whip that there...
Mr Nigel Fisher: To be more serious about this important matter, would my hon. Friend agree that the cut in real terms is 6·7 per cent., which is harsher than for all other public services? Is he aware that my local authority has already trimmed its administrative manpower, and therefore the cuts will fall on much needed personal social services? That can only mean greater cost to the Health Service through...