Mr Andrew Hargreaves: My hon. Friend demonstrates better than I could the need for such defences. If our destroyers must be on standby for effective guard duty of the United Kingdom mainland and that is specified as one of our primary defence roles, I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will assure us that they will be suitably equipped for that task. I should like to make a final point without which the...
Mr Andrew Hargreaves: If my hon. Friend is considering that course of action, will he advise his colleagues in his Department that they should also look carefully at the possibility of service men taking anabolic steroids, as they are most certainly proven to be connected with violent, if not criminal, behaviour?
Mr Andrew Hargreaves: As a person who learned to walk in plaster and was considered disabled for much of his childhood, I certainly take great issue with some Opposition Members who implied that, because a person is deemed disabled for one type of work, it does not mean that he is perfectly able to perform service to the community or service to his own family by taking a totally different job. The medical...
Mr Andrew Hargreaves: I have some sympathy with what the hon. Gentleman has been saying, as I have been part of a large organisation and have had various connections with small organisations, particularly clubs. I ask him to consider that there appear with this measure to be two angles: the first is the medium and large company and the employees thereof; the second is the growing number of much smaller companies...
Mr Andrew Hargreaves: Will the hon. Lady give way?
Mr Andrew Hargreaves: I think it fair to say that some consensus has evolved on both sides of the Chamber about several issues that have been discussed since the Secretary of State made his statement. Nevertheless, I should like to thank my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for a number of meetings that he held with myself and other colleagues about several defence topics that concern us. He...
Mr Andrew Hargreaves: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will list the 20 local authorities with the highest number of empty council homes.
Mr Andrew Hargreaves: My hon. Friend said that the authorities were predominantly Labour controlled. Does he agree that the list shows that the problem is one of mismanagement, once again? One way to correct the management would be for local authorities not to use direct labour organisations to carry out their repairs.
Mr Andrew Hargreaves: Much has already been said, very ably, by my hon. Friend the Member for Swindon (Mr. Coombs) and by other hon. Friends and Opposition Members. I was pleased to hear the hon. Member for Wakefield (Mr. Hinchliffe) reiterate his arguments about rugby league, because, although I follow both rugby union and rugby league avidly on television, I had no idea of the complications that have entered...
Mr Andrew Hargreaves: I am delighted to hear that, and I thank my hon. Friend for investigating the other matter that I raised. We can tackle the drugs problem, without spending huge amounts, by ensuring that everyone is on the same side—the side of clean sport. That includes promoters, television companies, sponsors and federations. I understand that some of those—including the television companies—have...
Mr Andrew Hargreaves: The hon. Gentleman will recall that I raised that issue with my hon. Friend the Minister. As a number is to go into this famous White Paper, for which we must all wait, will the hon. Gentleman give the number that the Opposition think appropriate?
Mr Andrew Hargreaves: I am sorry to take up more of my hon. Friend's time, but he mentioned 40 ships; and irrespective of comments about British manufacturers and shipbuilders, I should like to hear my hon. Friend categorically confirm that he has no plans to reduce that total of 40 ships simply because we cannot manufacture them cheaply enough in Britain for the Royal Navy to procure them.
Mr Andrew Hargreaves: I am pleased to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Mr. Howarth) on this issue. He has said, in much the same vein as many of his colleagues in the Committee said, that it is desirable to try to ensure that between 30 and 35 per cent. of the total take goes to good causes. We discussed this subject at some length in Committee, so it is not worth detaining the House...
Mr Andrew Hargreaves: Many of my hon. Friends probably share the hon. Gentleman's concern, and what he has said is enlightening. Those of us who served on the Committee probably missed out by not having this matter drawn to our attention earlier in the debate. However, at this stage of the proceedings on the Bill, is this the right place to raise such an important issue concerning rugby? Ought it not to be the...
Mr Andrew Hargreaves: My hon. and learned Friend spoke of the relative powerlessness of Back-Bench Members. It was such relatively powerless hon. Members who secured from the Minister a valuable commitment, which is embodied in new clause 7, that bodies that receive funds from the national lottery will have to account wholly separately for the moneys they receive. Although that will not ring-fence the money in the...
Mr Andrew Hargreaves: The point made by the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish (Mr. Bennett) was that enough time had gone by and enough people had been subjected to horrendous doorstepping after not just criminal offences but tragedies in their own families. Their house may burn down, and the press immediately turn up on the doorstep. Surely the flaw in this Bill, if it is flawed, is not its suggestion that the...
Mr Andrew Hargreaves: While I am sure that my hon. Friends on the Conservative side would perhaps sympathise with the hon. Gentleman's stated intention of raising standards for the press, rather than with the formal title of the Bill, the concept that you raised—
Mr Andrew Hargreaves: I apologise, Madam Deputy Speaker. The concept that a privacy Bill would only protect the rich and famous does not wash. It would also protect other people—for example, modest and unknown people who have been involved in some calamity and then suffer the intrusion of having cameras stuffed under their noses.
Mr Andrew Hargreaves: I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Hartlepool (Mr. Mandelson) for many of his remarks with which Conservative Members largely concur. We were all slightly amazed by the rather sniffy attitude adopted by one or two Opposition Members towards people taking a flutter especially, as the hon. Gentleman said, when it goes on in most political parties throughout the country. It is even stranger...
Mr Andrew Hargreaves: Does the hon. Lady accept that I and my colleagues would be much more persuaded by her arguments if she were talking about something other than a purely commercial operation? She talks about job losses. All of us—especially those of us from areas such as Birmingham—appreciate her point. But we are weighing the public good of extra opportunities. The hon. Lady should take the positive step...
