Mr John Butcher: Does my hon. Friend agree that one possible reason for future variations in council tax will be the major variations in staffing and manning levels and the efficiency of local authorities? There is a grave suspicion that some local authorities are seriously overmanned, while operating identical services to others which are not. May we have clear management information on which people can make...
Mr John Butcher: I congratulate my right hon. Friend on resisting the ghosts of Upper Clyde Shipbuilders. My right hon. Friend is aware of the large implications that this has for the engineering industry generally in the west midlands. Will he reassure me that he will place his office at the disposal of private sector bidders, who may be involved in quite complex negotiations across the North sea, in order...
Mr John Butcher: Will my hon. Friend keep a close eye on urban programmes in Coventry, some of which have been put to good use, and see to it that the accounting officers ensure that they get value for money? Will he also point out that good use has been made of the safer cities programme? When he visits Coventry next week, will he take some of the leaders of the council to one side and tell them that it...
Mr John Butcher: Did my right hon. Friend notice the very welcome announcement by Jaguar in Coventry that it is to invest £700 million in developing three new models for the market? When our right hon. Friend the Prime Minister returns to the House, could he pass to him an invitation to visit Coventry so that he can show his support for the engineering profession and the engineering industry which will...
Mr John Butcher: May we have a debate on the engineering industry and the role of the engineering profession in safeguarding our economic future and spearheading the recovery? Does my hon. Friend agree that, as part of that debate, it is important to examine the announcement made by the Jaguar Car Company today about the investment of £700 million in three new models, which will safeguard great tranches of...
Mr John Butcher: I know that the hon. Gentleman has great experience in industry, and his views must be respected in that regard. In his own words, he has vividly illustrated precisely why it will be intolerable to the other nations which have adopted the social chapter on competition policy grounds. I listened carefully to what the hon. Gentleman said. The advice which I have received from outside is that...
Mr John Butcher: May I draw the right hon. Gentlemen's attention to a rather curious aspect of the matter? Hon. Members may belong to the Liverpool or the Cambridge school of economists, they may be Keynesians or monetarists, they may be Ministers, or they may be Opposition Front Benchers, but what unites virtually all hon. Members is the consensus that, at a time of recession, deficits should be allowed to...
Mr John Butcher: If Ministers fail, if the electorate does not like what they do, they can be sacked at a general election. But after this treaty has added to the rolling progress of Europe we shall not be able to sack the Ministers responsible for ruining the economy. The point is that our being one twentieth of a democracy will eliminate a major part of our power to control our own rate of employment or...
Mr John Butcher: Further to that point of order, Mr. Lofthouse. You will recall that, in the Committee sittings before Christmas, a great deal of anxiety was expressed because about 20 hon. Members who had hoped to catch the Chair's eye could not do so. That group included hon. Members from Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. It seemed that a gentlemen's convention had been violated. Fundamental questions...
Mr John Butcher: Does my right hon. Friend agree that we are approaching a period of great danger in the Balkans and that our indignation and anger over what is going on in Sarajevo could lead to a chain of events that could, unhappily, go out of control? Will my right hon. Friend take this opportunity to remind the House of the strong links between Serbia and its fellow Slays in Russia, which is led by a...
Mr John Butcher: Will the Leader of the House make time for a debate in the House before the recess, because it would be a tragedy if we were to sleepwalk into an international crisis before we had a proper discussion?
Mr John Butcher: On a point of order, Dame Janet. The part of the Committee discussion which deals with title I is of fundamental constitutional importance. I readily concede that some over-lengthy speeches have been made in the House in the past two days, but some hon. Members who have an immense contribution to make to the debate have waited patiently to speak. There is a clash on the exact meaning and...
Mr John Butcher: My hon. Friend has been most courteous in giving way, but he was very provocative when he said that this was a routine and technical Bill. I ask my hon. Friend to accept what the Government are telling us: that transfers of sovereignty are involved and that there is considerable dispute about whether sovereignty will be transferred in areas that so far have been described as being outside the...
Mr John Butcher: rose—
Mr John Butcher: On a point of order, Mr. Chairman, which I assure you is a real one. Yesterday through the courtesy of the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, my right hon. Friend the Member for Watford (Mr. Garel-Jones), and with the indulgence of the Chair, there was a fairly complex exchange, almost an interrogation, on the question of whether title I bit on some parts of the treaty and...
Mr John Butcher: Further to that point of order, Mr. Lofthouse. Is it not a matter for the Chair that the debate should proceed on a basis of clear understanding of the constitutional implications of title I? I have a terrible fear that even in the area of foreign policy cited by my right hon. Friend the Minister of State, the clauses, if traced through the treaty, could bind us to foreign policy by...
Mr John Butcher: Does my hon. Friend recall that something like half of the total foreign earnings of the top 20 British manufacturers come from the North American market? At a time when some elements in Europe are becoming protectionist or anti-American, would it not be wise to consider new initiatives building on our right hon. Friend's undoubted success in GATT to reduce tariffs between the North American...
Mr John Butcher: The hon. Gentleman has referred to certain changes that may occur by the back door as a result of incorporating title I. Does he believe in Scottish devolution? There is an interpretation of subsidiarity that suggests that, if one takes decisions as closely as possible to the people in relation to national institutions, one gets regional government, otherwise known in Scotland as devolution.
Mr John Butcher: In his first comment on article L, my right hon. Friend said that title I would never be justiciable by the European Court. In a second comment, which he said that he had cleared with the Government's legal advisers, he said that in some circumstances title I might be justiciable by the European Court. My hon. Friend earlier spoke of incorporation in the corpus of the law of Europe. I...
Mr John Butcher: On a point of order, Mr. Morris. We now have a difference of view on whether title I would be justiciable. It is a very important matter because, if we are to incorporate something into law which will be justiciable, and if that is therefore to be part of our constitution, now written as opposed to basically unwritten, we should not proceed with the discussion of the amendment, given that it...