Mr Ernest Roberts: I have a few observations only which I make because I understand that there is unlikly to be a Division at the end of the debate. I am opposed to the so-called temporary seven-year old Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1978. Even with the amendments proposed, it will not comply with the European convention on human rights. Furthermore, it will still not compare with the level of...
Mr Ernest Roberts: I wish to deal with the Prime Minister's amendment, so I shall be referring to matters other than housing. I suggest that when the Minister comes to reply to the debate and to the Archbishop's report he should take the Bible out of the Dispatch Box to avoid blasphemy. Hackney is said to be the poorest borough in Britain. It is no accident that it is cheek by jowl with the richest area in...
Mr Ernest Roberts: No. Hackney and other inner-city areas suffer poverty because the Government are mis-spending public money. The Prime Minister and her colleagues ask where the money is coming from. I will tell them the answer. They have the money. They have £132 billion of our money, but what do they do with it? That is what the unemployed, taxpayers and I, on behalf of Hackney, want to know. Britain is...
Mr Ernest Roberts: rose—
Mr Ernest Roberts: It is quite clear from what the Home Secretary has said that he is straining at a gnat. Is he aware that last Thursday in the House, the Minister of State said that 1 million Commonwealth and Pakistani people had been allowed into the country last year and that he had representations during 1980 in only 1,000 cases and was expecting representations from Members in 4,500 cases this year? In...
Mr Ernest Roberts: Will the Minister not rely on water cannon, plastic bullets, tear gas, flat-nosed bullets and flails to solve the problems to which he has referred. and instead remove the obstacles that he has placed in the way of the local police in Hackney, Tottenham and such places meeting the borough council police committees to achieve the kind of co-operation that he wants? The fact that he has...
Mr Ernest Roberts: rose—[Interruption.] This is not a bit of fun, although it may be funny to the Tories. Is the Minister prepared to tell the 4 million unemployed, the 1 million homeless, the 600,000 waiting for hospital treatment, the old-age pensioners and the young unemployed that it is they who will be making the sacrifices to pay for these £500 a week increases?
Mr Ernest Roberts: The police force is supposed to be democratic and is expected to look after the interests of all the people in Britain, irrespective of race, colour or creed, but that is not so in the area that I represent. Black people, and others, are continually in conflict with the police because of the way that they are treated. I have examples here of complaints by my constituents that have been...
Mr Ernest Roberts: Does the hon. Gentleman agree that his case, that a writ be issued so that the electorate at Brecon and Radnor can make its views known on the Government's policies, means that he ought to agree that it would be even better if the whole Government resigned and allowed the country to express its views on their policies?
Mr Ernest Roberts: I am still opposed to the Bill because it does not deal specifically with kerb crawling. It deals with the offence of persistently soliciting women for prostitution and other sexual purposes. Such a Bill cannot possibly deal with the problem of prostitution, but it could have dealt specifically with kerb crawling if some amendments had been accepted. I oppose the Bill on four grounds. First,...
Mr Ernest Roberts: A person may get out of his car and walk a short distance to ask someone a question. How far can such a person move from his car to avoid being charged with kerb crawling?
Mr Ernest Roberts: Is the Minister expecting a policeman or woman to decide on a person's intent? If so, it is getting very close to the old sus law, which has been a great aggravation in my area, where a police officer, seeing someone do something or say something, draws the inference that it is against the law. Frequently in such cases the police can be wrong. For example, I have often tried the handle of...
Mr Ernest Roberts: I speak not as a lawyer but as someone who has been a shop steward for 25 years, and as a national trade union official with some experience of dismissals and protection against dismissals. The order will remove the right of a worker to go before a tribunal and appeal against unfair dismissal if he has been employed for less than two years. There are nearly 4 million people in Britain who...
Mr Ernest Roberts: The argument would not have been as great and as difficult as it is if the Bill had dealt wholly and solely with the problem of kerb crawling and had not tried to deal with the problem of prostitution which is known as the oldest profession. The difficulties that we are debating have arisen because the Bill seeks to deal with prostitution generally. No Bill will be able to solve the...
Mr Ernest Roberts: In view of the serious statement on security by the Prime Minister, will she consider withdrawing a statement sent to me from the Cabinet Office Management and Personnel Office? The Minister concerned said that it was the Government's declared policy to introduce competitive tendering for services, including security guarding, in Government Departments … I cannot go into detail about the...
Mr Ernest Roberts: I wish to add a few words to those of my hon. Friend the Member or Coventry, South-East (Mr. Nellist). I have already written to Mr. Mugabe on the matter because of my association with Mr. Mugabe before he became the leader of his country. I and others connected with the anti-apartheid movement and other movements were concerned about the need for Zimbabwe to have its independence. We hoped...
Mr Ernest Roberts: Why should information not be given in the baby Cotton case?
Mr Ernest Roberts: I support many of the proposals in the Bill, although it is a sad commentary on present day society that we should have to consider such elementary democratic principles, which ought to have been put into operation many years ago. However, it is perhaps understandable that we should have to discuss basic democratic principles when the Government are prepared, at a stroke of the law, to wipe...
Mr Ernest Roberts: The Hackney borough council has adopted a policy of decentralising housing management. That information is now readily available not only to all councillors, as it should be, but to the citizens because their housing services and conditions are affected. It is not good enough to argue that a councillor needs information in order to attack the council. That should be no reason for obtaining...
Mr Ernest Roberts: I, too, compliment the hon. Member for Plymouth, Drake (Miss Fookes) on having introduced the Bill as a result of her name being selected in the ballot. I had my name drawn in the ballot and was immediately solicited by Wandsworth borough council to introduce a Bill on kerb crawling and prostitution. The council wrote me a lengthy letter in which it said: The police do what they can to try...