Mr Barry Henderson: The Minister of State has given an undertaking that guidance will be sent to the local authorities on this matter. The hon. Member for Coatbridge and Airdrie (Mr. Dempsey) has championed his own local authority. There is an even better authority in my constituency. What we were trying to achieve in the amendment was to ensure that the practice of the best local authorities would become the...
Mr Barry Henderson: asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will issue a White Paper on the Scottish economy.
Mr Barry Henderson: Does the right hon. Gentleman recognise that since he was last in office there has been a major industrial revolution in Scotland? The national statistics of unemployment and employment conceal the serious problems which exist in the non-oil sector, particularly in the west of Scotland. This imbalance in the Scottish economy, the slowing up of new industry inquiries, the slump in the market...
Mr Barry Henderson: Mr. Barry Henderson (Dunbartonshire, East) rose—
Mr Barry Henderson: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr Barry Henderson: I think I understood the hon. Gentleman to say that there was no national shortage of nursing staff in Scotland. There are two hospitals in my constituency, and a responsible person told me that in one the number of staff was 20 per cent. below the figure required for the minimum standard of patient care, while in the other there are 750 people on the payroll to do the work of 500 people,...
Mr Barry Henderson: Will the right hon. Gentleman consider extending the social compact to envisage the possibility of a strikes holiday? Does he accept that if such an extension were made it could have a practical effect on the national economy in which there would be major advantages for employers to offer substantial increases in wages in order to encourage such a situation to be brought about?
Mr Barry Henderson: I beg to move, That this House deplores the damaging effects of Government policies on small savers and other groups of people who are on fixed and low incomes. There are many social and economic benefits in the encouragement of savings and there are also great problems suffered by those who have to live on low fixed incomes. One Labour Member who looked in for a moment implied that we should...
Mr Barry Henderson: There was a good reason why the Stock Exchange fell in the last part of the previous Government's term of office. It was because many people feared that we were about to have a Labour Government who would be bad for investment. Since the Labour Government came in there has undoubtedly been an enormous squeeze on companies, and this has had a very serious effect on the small savers who had...
Mr Barry Henderson: I suspect that the hon. Gentleman comes from a Socialist local authority area. Many small savers are disheartened by the way in which they believe they are substituting, through their efforts, what they might otherwise have got through the social security system. It is almost a cliché to talk about the ladder and the net as the basis of Tory philosophy. I believe that the net has some...
Mr Barry Henderson: When the Prime Minister comes to Scotland on 5th May, will he explain to Scottish local authorities and ratepayers why the cost of the reorganisation of local government in Scotland was not reflected in the rate support grant, as was the cost of local government reorganisation in England?
Mr Barry Henderson: We all have particularly in mind three questions—about the jobs, the resources of the newspaper itself, and the whole future of the Press in Scotland. Many people in my constituency work for this group of newspapers, or for other journalistic enterprises in the area, and I am concerned about what will happen to their skills and to their families, and about the effect on their morale. I am...
Mr Barry Henderson: I would have thought that the word "democracy" had an implication beyond the workers in the industry. The readers of the newspaper also have to be considered. The hon. Gentleman also spoke about an imaginary sales scale on which if the sales of the newspaper had been conducted on a particular basis throughout the United Kingdom, the Express group would have been immensely profitable. But...
Mr Barry Henderson: Does the hon. Gentleman accept that a big burden has been placed upon ratepayers by the rent freeze which I am sure must have been expected by the Government when they imposed the freeze? When will the legislation be introduced? Ratepayers will be most anxious unless they are told.
Mr Barry Henderson: asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he will reintroduce the legislation initiated by his predecessor to abolish feu duty.
Mr Barry Henderson: Will the right hon. Gentleman confirm that, despite the inexplicable absence of any mention of this matter from the Gracious Speech, it will be brought forward this Session?
Mr Barry Henderson: I am conscious that this is a controversial topic and one which might not have lent itself to a maiden speech. On the other hand, I believe that whilst there is a great controversy it is not necessarily party controversy, and I believe, too, that it is not beyond the wit of man to find a great deal of common ground on many aspects of the subject. Before I address myself directly to the...
Mr Barry Henderson: Is the hon. Gentleman suggesting that all the gas is English gas?