Mr Ernest Roberts: Will the hon. Member agree that the case he has been making shows that so-called free private enterprise is unsuccessful and cannot do the job? Is not that why he is calling on his colleagues in the Government to give private enterprise a handout and as a Government to do the things that free private enterprise cannot do?
Mr Ernest Roberts: And end up unemployed.
Mr Ernest Roberts: Will the right hon. Gentleman look at the problem, which has been raised with him right from the beginning of this Parliament, of the conditions under which many right hon. and hon. Members, especially on the Opposition side, have to work in this House? They are worse than many workers in industry have to put up with, and that is saying a lot. If conditions of this kind operated outside in...
Mr Ernest Roberts: Many people for whom I speak in this debate have already gone to their beds on park benches, or in shop doorways, disused factories, empty or derelict properties, or on the pavements, or are squatting. The rest are still wandering about seeking shelter and a place to rest their bodies. It is estimated that there are about 100,000 such people in the United Kingdom. About 60,000 of them are in...
Mr Ernest Roberts: I am interested in the hon. Gentleman's argument about a free market, and his advocacy of being a good European and free marketeer. How does he reconcile free enterprise with the EEC practice of keeping food off the market and interfering with supply and demand in building food mountains?
Mr Ernest Roberts: I want to declare an interest in this matter as the chairman of the British Trade Union South African Congress of Trade Unions Liaison Committee. We are trade unionists whose employers have branches in South Africa, where black trade unionists are used as cheap labour to undercut the wages, the conditions and the trade union rights of British workers in Britain. As British industry is the...
Mr Ernest Roberts: Is the Minister aware that the local authority in my constituency emptied a large dwelling that was not fit for human habitation in order to carry out repairs? As soon as it became vacant, 130 young people who required accommodation squatted there, showing the extent of the problem, even in that area. How will that sort of problem be solved?
Mr Ernest Roberts: I shall only say a few words, because time is running out. I should like to refer to what the hon. Member for Winchester (Mr. Browne) said about the British patient dying economically. He is right, and the Government will be culpable of murder when he dies. The aim of the Bill underlines the Government's intention to endeavour to manage the economy by what they call monetary policy. I have...
Mr Ernest Roberts: This debate indicates many of the problems facing the people of London, made worse as a result of Government policies. One of the worst problems is the need of people for a decent home at a reasonable rent. This basic right of all people is denied to hundreds of thousands of people living in this city. About 3,000 homeless families are living in temporary accommodation in bed and breakfast...
Mr Ernest Roberts: Will not the hon. Gentleman agree that the matter is not simply one of statistics? In a class of 30, one school may have children of 18 different nationalities, who have problems with the English language, numeracy, and so on, as a result, while other schools do not have such problems.
Mr Ernest Roberts: Will my hon. and learned Friend also refer to another freedom—the freedom or licence of employers not to have a trade union at their place of work?
Mr Ernest Roberts: The Under-Secretary of State for Employment made the following remark in Committee: Those who support the continuance of the arrangements in schedule 11 have those honourable motives. They want to help those whose pay is lower than that of most other people in the same class of work. I am quite certain of that. … The difference between us is whether we consider that we should rely upon...
Mr Ernest Roberts: The Minister said that he would give way, and he has done so eventually. He obviously does not know that a person who pays a political levy becomes a member of the Labour Party and is represented as a member within the Labour Party. There are 2,500 branches of my union where the political levy-paying members are affiliated to the local Labour Party. They are represented there, and as members...
Mr Ernest Roberts: Will the Minister answer a further question?
Mr Ernest Roberts: The law permits companies to spend money on political campaigns and to finance a political party out of their profits or assets. No shareholder has the right to contract out even when he disagrees violently with the political party or the organisations concerned. I concur with my hon. Friends who have described what happens in the other part of industry, the trade union movement. It is...
Mr Ernest Roberts: The union concerned is the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers. If the hon. Gentleman were to bring a complaint, he would find that the principle I have outlined works. I understand that about 200,000 new members and some of the older members of the trade union movement actually contract out. That is out of a total figure of almost 12 million members belonging to unions who pay the...
Mr Ernest Roberts: The logic of the hon. Gentleman's suggestion is that a worker who does not like contributing to the political fund of a union should leave his job, get out, and find himself another job. That is palpably absurd. Unions do not operate on that sort of basis. The shareholder should have the right to say that he wishes to keep his investments within a company but that political parties or...
Mr Ernest Roberts: I should mention Aims of Industry, particularly, as my hon. Friend reminds me. There have also been a number of campaigns. Some important political campaigns conducted by big business are anti-Labour in content. Hon. Members will recall Mr. Cube, the campaign of the sugar industry and the money it spent for political purposes. They will also recall the campaign against the nationalisation of...
Mr Ernest Roberts: I am sure they will, particularly the building trade workers, of whom about 250,000 are unemployed as a result. It is not a small sum of money that we are talking about. When the facts are disclosed, it is estimated that about £2½ million will prove to have been given in 1979 in political donations to the Tory Party and other organisations. Also, companies do not have just a small...
Mr Ernest Roberts: Has my hon. Friend noticed that he is speaking to the converted, since those who should be listening are absent from the Government Benches and will not get the message?