Mr Robin Squire: I speak as a consultant for Lombard North Central. I have worked for 12 years in the credit finance sphere. The hon. Mem- ber for Norwood (Mr. Fraser) made most of the points that I wished to put for. ward, but I should be grateful for the patience of the House in order to reiterate a few of them. The original White Paper that preceded the Act—it was entitled "Reform of the Law on...
Mr Robin Squire: During her busy day would my right hon. Friend care to speculate on which of the many policies, previously advocated by the right hon. Member for Ebbw Vale (Mr. Foot), will be the first to suffer a U-turn in his new capacity.
Mr Robin Squire: Does not the hon. Gentleman accept that within the past 12 months on two major Bills the other place has demonstrated the reverse? It has gone against the Government on items of major legislation.
Mr Robin Squire: I, too, would like to make a brief contribution at this late hour as someone who served on the Standing Committee and, as the hon. Member for Edmonton (Mr. Graham) will remember, endeavoured to get through amendments similar to those now before the House. It is tremendous news for many boroughs, particularly Havering. I believe that the House of Lords has performed a stirling duty. Should...
Mr Robin Squire: Will my right hon. Friend confirm, as the question referred to the moratorium, that it is of no long-term advantage to the construction industry, or to the homeless or the less fortunate, for Governments, national or local, to live beyond their budgets?
Mr Robin Squire: asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science when the results of the Government inquiry into the future of the Inner London Education Authority will be published.
Mr Robin Squire: Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that the recent inspectors' report, as published, showed that ILEA, in spite of enjoying perhaps the best pupil-teacher ratio on average in the country, none the less had very disturbing educational results? Will be take steps in the immediate future to produce a system in which ILEA is more politically, educationally and financially accountable...
Mr Robin Squire: I hope that the hon. Member for Salford, East (Mr. Allaun) will forgive me if I do not follow him into the highways and byways of Salford, enjoyable though that place may be, although I suspect that some of its problems are due to the nature of the council that has administered its housing for so long. I turn to some of the distortions that we have heard about in relation to housing. My hon....
Mr Robin Squire: Does my hon. Friend agree that, if possible, the position of Dr. and Mrs. Coleman, the parents of a constituent of mine, is even worse in that the knowledge that we have of them is somewhat less than the scanty knowledge that we have of the other two unfortunate captives and that it becomes a matter of priority that we establish the health and welfare of these people?
Mr Robin Squire: Does the hon. Gentleman not accept that in coming to their recommendations the commissioners are required to look not merely at the existing population but at the expected population changes in the immediate future? If that is so, that could account for a number of the variations to which he has referred.
Mr Robin Squire: Will my right hon. Friend comment on the hypocrisy of the protestations of the Leader of the Opposition? The right hon. Gentleman has not even considered—
Mr Robin Squire: I must have meant "inconsistency". I apologise.
Mr Robin Squire: Yes, Mr. Speaker. Will my right hon. Friend comment on the right hon. Gentleman's inconsistency, given that he has seen lit to withdraw from his Shadow Cabinet any speaker on Northern Ireland, defence and other important matters? Is not this an indication of the importance which the right hon. Gentleman attaches to Northern Ireland? Does not my right hon. Friend agree that that shows a very...
Mr Robin Squire: Does not my right hon. Friend accept that while many hon. Members welcome any determination by Governments to keep within their budgets, one of the continuing problems in housing is the failure to distinguish between investment and revenue expenditure? Is he aware that many hon. Members would welcome greater attention being given by the Government to that aspect, which, in isolation, would do...
Mr Robin Squire: Will my hon. Friend point out that the oil companies provide employment in Britain, and that it makes no more sense to exclude oil figures than it does to exclude the figures of other industries where we are perhaps less successful?
Mr Robin Squire: Does my right hon. Friend accept that the Armitage report is very clear about the environmental damage done by heavy lorries in a number of parts of the country? In respect of my own constituency, this damage is self-evident. When will my right hon. Friend be in a position to announced at long last the re-routeing of the A13 which will bring relief to Rainham village?
Mr Robin Squire: Will my hon. Friend confirm that she and her Department will continue to press the Treasury to uprate child benefit in line with inflation at all opportunities, given its many advantages, which all hon. Members recognise?
Mr Robin Squire: I hope that the House will accept my apologies for having had to miss some of the earlier speeches. Because of that, and because of the little time that is left, my contribution will be short. I hope that the hon. Member for Bootle (Mr. Roberts) will not object if I do not follow him down the path that he took. I endorse what my hon. Friend for Portsmouth, North (Mr. Griffiths) said about...
Mr Robin Squire: Does not the hon. Gentleman accept that the justification for those rent increases depends not on the Government's building programme—whether or not that is good—but on whether the rent paid by tenants represents a legitimate proportion of their net wage in comparison with former proportions?
Mr Robin Squire: Does my hon. Friend accept that, as he has already been criticised by an anti-European for not exporting enough to the EEC and is now being criticised for exporting too much, the chances are that he has it about right?
