Sir Peter Emery: My hon. Friend will know that a number of Conservative Members are very much in favour of a limitation on tobacco advertising because of the dangers that it can present to health. Does he, however, accept that the Bill had an opportunity to make two provisions that it does not make? The first is to increase the medical warning on a packet of cigarettes so that it occupies a much larger...
Sir Peter Emery: The Government made it clear when introducing these procedures that they would ensure that all amendments and all parts of a Bill could be debated. I do not know whether that was done in Committee, but when a host of new amendments is introduced on Report and proper time is not given, the Government are falling down on the undertaking that they gave when they introduced the system.
Sir Peter Emery: The motion is not a programming motion; it is a guillotine. The programme motions for Committees can properly be described as such, but this motion has nothing to do with Committees. It provides a guillotine to deal with Report and Third Reading, and a guillotine motion is usually moved by the Leader of the House. It is not left—I do not mean to be unkind—to a junior Minister. It is wrong...
Sir Peter Emery: I am very sorry for that. The hon. Lady is a very pretty thing to hang out to dry, and I do not mind being sexist in saying so. I agree entirely with my hon. Friend. She and the duty Whip should acknowledge that the Government's attempts at modernisation—I am a member of the Modernisation Committee who has tried to assist in that process— are backfiring because of their inefficiency and...
Sir Peter Emery: Will the Secretary of State realise that much of what he has been doing recently has done nothing for the specialisation of schools in the countryside? I have a letter signed by the right hon. Gentleman, dated just over two weeks ago, in which he praises the additional £52 million for the SAS—[Interruption]—I mean the SSA for the counties. Devon, which is one of the largest counties in...
Sir Peter Emery: On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I apologise for not giving you notice of this point of order, which arises from Question Time. I think that the House applauds you for trying to ensure that questions and answers are shorter. One understands the position of new Members, but most hon. Members have now been in the House for two or three years. Would not it greatly help the House if hon. Members...
Sir Peter Emery: Two or three weeks ago, when the Government proposed the procedure, they gave the assurance that enough time would be given for the Opposition to table amendments and for each clause of the Bill to be properly debated. They are reneging on what they said to the House.
Sir Peter Emery: My right hon. Friend should perhaps remind the House that the motion constitutes a guillotine on when a Bill leaves Committee. Not so very long ago, no Government would introduce a guillotine until an issue had been debated in Committee for 90 or 100 hours. There is, I am afraid, no such criterion in the motion that we are discussing.
Sir Peter Emery: Does the right hon. Gentleman accept that the middle east continues to be one of the most dangerous and difficult political problems? As there has been a change of President in the United States, will he ensure that he and his Department get in touch with the new Administration so that we work closely with them to bring about a solution, difficult as that may be?
Sir Peter Emery: Will my hon. Friend give way?
Sir Peter Emery: My hon. Friend said that he thought that tobacco advertising at motor racing was not going to be banned until 2006, and I understand that tobacco advertising at all other sporting fixtures will be banned by 2002. Does he think that the timetabling of the Bill allows us to probe how and why these differences come about?
Sir Peter Emery: The motion is an aberration from what the Government originally presented, and is, I believe, entirely incorrect. There has been no consultation between Government and Opposition: indeed, the Government have admitted that they have no idea what the Opposition wish to discuss, or what amendments they may wish to table. Yet it was the Government who said that the procedure whereby the date by...
Sir Peter Emery: I am, indeed, immensely disappointed by the way in which things are going. If the Opposition decide that we need, say, 32 debates, we shall be sitting on Wednesdays; we shall be sitting until midnight three days a week. Is that what the Government want hon. Members to go through? If so, it is a nonsense. If we are not to revert to the old procedures whereby half a Bill was never discussed in...
Sir Peter Emery: Is it not the case that the KPMG survey was financed by the tobacco industry?
Sir Peter Emery: I have always believed that when one has any sort of interest in the subject that is being debated, one should declare it I have no financial interest whatever in tobacco, but I have been chairman of the National Asthma Campaign for 12 years and am also chairman of the House of Commons all-party asthma group. As I said, I take no money from tobacco, but giving to related charities has cost me...
Sir Peter Emery: I do not like to see people smoking when walking along the streets, because it is rather bad manners. However, I do not advocate a ban. One cannot attempt to limit smoking in the open air, and I do not believe that anyone who supports the Bill suggests such a limitation. The latter part of the reasoned amendment is acceptable. It mentions the Bill's inability to do anything about sporting...
Sir Peter Emery: I am sorry, I meant my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope). Christchurch is very near Southampton.
Sir Peter Emery: I was about to say that I fully understood my hon. Friend's position. I understand his feeling that he should defend people who may see their jobs put at risk. It is right that a Member of Parliament should highlight that problem, because it is another problem with which the Government will have to cope. I should point out, however, that a further problem—a considerable problem—is posed...
Sir Peter Emery: I will not go into that, but my hon. Friend has made his point, and will doubtless expand on it in his own speech.
Sir Peter Emery: Yes, for the last time.
