Mr John Page: It is a pleasure, Mr. Deputy Speaker, on the last occasion that I shall speak in the House, to be called by a Deputy Speaker who is such an old friend of mine. I remember many occasions when you were a Minister at the Ministry of Labour, and I was chairman of the Conservative party labour committee and we used to cross swords, but always in the most friendly way. This is a friendly occasion,...
Mr John Page: I am grateful to my hon. Friends for remaining here to listen to the debate. I am pleased to speak on a matter that is of vital importance to a small number of people and of great strategic significance to the Government and to the investing public. For three reasons, I have a special interest in licensed financial dealers. First, constituents of mine have lost all or part of their savings...
Mr John Page: Is my hon. Friend aware that hon. Members on both sides of the House will be delighted to learn that Lord Holderness has accepted the position of chairman of the new board. As an amputee, he has special insights, and as a former Minister responsible for pensions and national insurance, he will be able to work his way through the bureaucratic jungle. He and Professor McColl will make an...
Mr John Page: As so often happens in the House, when one listens to the arguments one starts disagreeing with what one thought one might believe in. If the captain of a destroyer dashing about at night in assumed wartime conditions, as my hon. Friend set out earlier, bashes his ship into another, with the loss of many lives, and negligence could be proved, would the captain not be in the same position as,...
Mr John Page: In view of the calm sunshine in which the Government are at present basking, will the Leader of the House be kind enough to try to find time for a very short debate on early-day motion 367 about the floodlighting of the statute of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square? [That this House would welcome the permanent floodlighting of the statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square...
Mr John Page: Is my hon. Friend aware that the right hon. Member for Morley and Leeds, South (Mr. Rees), who was my most distinguished constituent at one time, is only emphasising the valuable point that decisions on matters such as these should be left to the properly elected local authority?
Mr John Page: Are any special arrangements made when civil servants give evidence which might last quite a long time at the Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg?
Mr John Page: I am honoured to be given a second helping on this important debate. Earlier, I showed paternalism for insurance brokers, who I now understand are excluded from this measure. From a constituency point of view, I have something further to say. In my constituency there is a magnificant Edwardian building in which I know that my hon. Friend the Minister would take a great interest, which used to...
Mr John Page: I think that the hon. Gentleman has lost the thread of my argument already. I was trying to follow his criticism that there should have been United Kingdom legislation of a different nature first. That seemed to be an unusual route. It seemed to be an unusual way of adopting an EEC position on this matter. Wearing the hat of the commercial traveller in my constituency, and supporting his...
Mr John Page: Will my hon. Friend give way?
Mr John Page: I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way. Realising the aridity of the subject, I wish to dip my mug into the oasis of his great knowledge. My hon. Friend referred to "stockbrokers and so on." As the author of what is known as the Page Act, the Insurance Brokers (Registration) Act 1977, I should like to ask whether insurance brokers are "and so on".
Mr John Page: Is there not something rather creditable that during proceedings on a Private Member's Bill, on a private occasion, the Whips were not nudging hon. Members and asking them to say something or other? That shows that amateurism is alive and happy and living at Westminster.
Mr John Page: The hon. Gentleman is a distinguished and long-serving member of the Labour party. Is his view that, if necessary, British troops should go into the borderline states to maintain sanctions part of Labour party policy? Perhaps he will expand on that because it is an important aspect which was touched on by my right hon. Friend the Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (Mr. Heath).
Mr John Page: I commend these new measures, which will modernise the registers of trade marks and bring Britain into line with the most modern practices in the rest of the world. In this new modernized system there is a perfect opportunity for the European trade mark office to be brought to England, to Greater London. It would be a great advantage for the country to have the European trade mark office...
Mr John Page: Is my right hon. Friend aware that the country will find the bogus indignation of the Opposition absolutely absurd? Does he appreciate that the captain of the Opposition ship that is sailing tonight has produced a unique feat of navigation by running into both Scylla and Charybdis on the same statement? Does my right hon. Friend accept that all sides of the water industry will be grateful to...
Mr John Page: I hope that the hon. Member for Normanton (Mr. O'Brien) will forgive me if I do not take up his argument, because I especially want to address my remarks to the water companies. My declaration of interest was most handsomely and fulsomely declared on my behalf by my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne (Mr. Gow). I am a director of a water company and the deputy president of the Water...
Mr John Page: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that generous and clear response, which is typical of his helpful and robust attitude towards this issue. We must also consider the importance of securing our water resources in future. As it is almost certain that the planning time will he longer than the time covered by licences granted to those water services plcs., we feel that that should be retained...
Mr John Page: I agree with my hon. Friend, but the water companies are not blindly hostile to the idea of becoming WS plcs. We believe that the statutory water company and its present modus operandi should be retained. We are happy with the controls on prices, and the control on dividends should also continue. There would then be some check on the price, service and efficiency offered by a new WS plc.
Mr John Page: I am deeply fond of the hon. Gentleman, but he cannot divert me from his sedentary position —[Interruption.]—and I shall not give way. If the WS plcs provide a better service, with water of a higher quality and at a cheaper price than that provided by the statutory companies, the latter will deservedly disappear. But while the new companies prove themselves, the statutory companies...
Mr John Page: If my hon. Friend does not interrupt me, he will probably have a better chance of speaking. I am now galloping round Becher's Brook for the second time and am nearly at the finishing post. I shall not fall. The beneficent Lord has smiled on my hon. Friend the Minister and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, because, instead of having to provide extra competition, as happened in the...
