Mr Phillip Whitehead: The hon. Member must realise that the adaptation of this engine to the Lockheed 10–11 basic design is only the first stage of what is possible with this airframe company alone. Many of the Rolls-Royce technicians have assured me—and the Minister—that tests taking place upon versions of the RB211 show an achievement of thrust far greater than was originally estimated, coming very close...
Mr Phillip Whitehead: The RB211, unlike a Coca-Cola stand, can be altered, improved and fitted to various new concepts. Work is already proceeding at Rolls-Royce on another engine, a smaller one, 25,000 lb. thrust which would power a double-engine short-haul airbus jet of the future. I do not see how we can opt out of this whole range of technology, how we can turn this company back to a repairing shop, a...
Mr Phillip Whitehead: asked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications whether he will now make a statement about the future of local radio stations.
Mr Phillip Whitehead: All those in the House who are concerned about broadcasting will welcome the Minister's statement that extra revenue is to be made available. However, can the Minister give two assurances? First, can the right hon. Gentleman give an undertaking that the extra hand-out to the I.T.V. companies will be made available only to those companies which can give an assurance that the money will not be...
Mr Phillip Whitehead: The process of diversification began in the early 1960s, when some of these companies were earning about a 60 per cent. return on equity.
Mr Phillip Whitehead: I prefer to give perhaps 1½ cheers and if necessary one vote to the Order. This is a palliative measure; it can be no more. It is tinkering with the system. We accept that the system is starved of funds and that the levy must be reduced. I begin by declaring a past interest, in that I worked for three years for Thames Television, the largest of the independent contractors, during precisely...
Mr Phillip Whitehead: I was coming to that. The holdings of the Thomson organisation were reduced to 25 per cent. in 1968 for precisely the reason that it was felt by the then I.T.A. Chairman, Lord Hill of Luton, that Section 12 of the Television Act—which refers to the interest of newspaper proprietors and the way it might be harmful to the public interest—should be invoked. The holdings of the Thomson...
Mr Phillip Whitehead: I would not go quite as far as that. I would say that there was a prima facie reason for believing that Mr. Murdoch might not be so qualified and that therefore a public examination of the programmes he proposes to put on is needed and justified. The Authority ought therefore to institute, and I hope that the Minister will urge it to institute, a full examination of the viability of this...
Mr Phillip Whitehead: It is true that no programme may be televised without the approval of the Authority, but it is equally true that neither the personnel of London Weekend Television, nor the financial holdings nor the programming policy of the company have been properly scrutinised, but merely rubber stamped on the excuse of financial expediency. The best that people in the Authority have been able to say...
Mr Phillip Whitehead: In what sense can a discussion of the way in which previous assurances about programme quality have not been kept be irrelevant to a debate which the Minister opened by referring to such assurances?
Mr Phillip Whitehead: I beg to move—
Mr Phillip Whitehead: I am willing.
Mr Phillip Whitehead: I endorse what my hon. Friends have said in calling attention to the circumstances of the bankruptcy of Rolls-Royce Ltd. and, therefore, beg to move, That this House, noting the grave consequences in Derby and throughout the country of the bankruptcy of Rolls-Royce Limited, views with concern both the position of sub-contracting firms and the worsening unemployment situation; and urges Her...
Mr Phillip Whitehead: The hon. Gentleman and his hon. Friend the Member for Woking (Mr. Onslow) may be shaken when the facts come out, if a Select Committee inquiry takes place. In the debate on 11th February the hon. Member for Portsmouth, Langstone (Mr. Ian Lloyd) raised a number of pertinent questions which received no answers. Like many hon. Members, I sat right through that debate in the hope that answers...
Mr Phillip Whitehead: The hon. Member for Woking (Mr. Onslow) advisedly said "in prospect". He should know as well as anyone in the House, in spite of his constituency interests in this, that there are serious problems with the RB199 and that a number of orders it may get are themselves notional. The orders which the RB211 has are fixed at the moment; they are fixed at least until 5th March. It is extremely...
Mr Phillip Whitehead: I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I agree entirely with that point. In Derby alone, I am informed by the President of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Foyers, 45 small firms with 50 or fewer employees are reporting to him on average between 25 per cent. and 30 per cent. redundancy. This is happening now. Many of these small firms are in extreme difficulties with their banks. Some are in doubt...
Mr Phillip Whitehead: I was trying to say that the two projects were equally important. I hope that the hon. Gentleman would agree with that.
Mr Phillip Whitehead: Is it not a fact that trade union wage demands and so on in the escalation of the cost of the RB211 represented about 2 per cent., and no more?
Mr Phillip Whitehead: Is the hon. Gentleman aware that there has not been a serious industrial dispute at Derby since before the war?
Mr Phillip Whitehead: The call from this side of the House for a Select Committee has been reinforced by the allegations in The Times. Would the Minister say something about the allegations relating to multilateral agreements allegedly entered into on 9th November? Would he also say whether he inadvertently misled the House on 11th November or whether he was misled himself?