Mr Ernest Roberts: The business of information technology begins in primary schools. I have visited a number of primary schools in my constituency and have seen young children learning to operate computers, not for games but for learning languages and doing arithmetic. There are not enough computers in schools. Teachers complain that they have to get several children around one computer to familiarise them with...
Mr Ernest Roberts: asked the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 5 February.
Mr Ernest Roberts: Will the Prime Minister take into account the views of the massive lobby yesterday against Sizewell B? Will she take note of the fact that the Layfield report. which is two years out of date, did not consider the massive disaster at Chernobyl?
Mr Ernest Roberts: Will the right hon. Gentleman give instructions to his junior Ministers and his officials to treat visitors to Britain more humanely? Since last year, I have dealt with hundreds of cases, as Ministers know. I have been appalled at the way in which those visitors have been treated in the past two or three weeks. They have been given inhuman treatment. They have not been allowed to know where...
Mr Ernest Roberts: On a point of order, Mr. Speaker.
Mr Ernest Roberts: On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. In reply to my observations, the Home Secretary said that I would be sorry about raising the questions that I raised. I want to know whether the Home Secretary was making a threat.
Mr Ernest Roberts: We are today considering the report of the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis and the review of public order. I want to say a few words about what the role of the police should be. We have heard about what the role is and we have heard from my hon. Friends about the considerable number of problems that arise as a result of the lack of proper policing in London. I understand that the...
Mr Ernest Roberts: I agree with that. Sefton is a metropolitan district which used to pride itself on low rates and poor services. The council has cut services to the bone and has done everything the Government wanted, but the leader of that council was the one quoted by Ministers——
Mr Ernest Roberts: I am doing that, and I am quoting the justification of the Government, in their rate-capping legislation, for rate-capping Liverpool and the other local authorities. The Government quoted the leader of Sefton council on the assumption that, if one rate-capped Liverpool and the others, the consequence of dealing with the so-called overspenders was that there would be money available to...
Mr Ernest Roberts: Mr. Deputy Speaker, you are being most unfair.
Mr Ernest Roberts: I am speaking about the geographical areas and about the implications for those areas. The consequences are that there is no money because of the rate-capping of Liverpool and the other local authorities. That is a consequence of what is happening in the geographical area. Therefore, other local authorities are suffering as a result. That theme has permeated the whole of the debate. Why it...
Mr Ernest Roberts: Besides arguing that rate-capping would help so-called underspenders, it was argued that abolition would help them. The leader of Sefton council——
Mr Ernest Roberts: On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I am serious about the point of order. Throughout the debate, including the opening speeches of the Minister and my hon. Friend the Member for Copeland (Dr. Cunningham), reference has been made to the consequences of abolition and precepting on authorities. They are tied up with grant-related expenditures and rate-capping assessments. The consequences...
Mr Ernest Roberts: Liverpool is on Merseyside, and I shall refer to Merseyside county council, and the consequences for Liverpool, which are the same as for the other districts in the area. As a result of the abolition of Merseyside county council, which has led to the rate capping of Liverpool, the three precepts for all three joint authorities—the police, fire and passenger transport authorities...
Mr Ernest Roberts: I agree with my hon. Friend. When the Government announced the rate support grant settlement, they said to some local authorities, in anticipation of rate-capping other authorities, that certain amounts of grant would be clawed back from overspending authorities. Many local authorities, in anticipation of that, have invented a new phenomenon called flowback. They are planning deficit budgets,...
Mr Ernest Roberts: Does the hon. Gentleman admit that high interest rates are a greater burden on small businesses than high rates?
Mr Ernest Roberts: Does the rate increase have nothing to do with the reduction in the county council's rate support grant?
Mr Ernest Roberts: The hon. Gentleman has the jobs and the trees.
Mr Ernest Roberts: Rates are supposed to meet local needs, and it is not for a Government to exercise arbitrary authority over local authorities about how they should set about meeting those needs. The people of Hackney are the poorest, most deprived people in Britain. According to the Department of the Environment analysis, which is based on five counts, Hackney is one of the worst 10 boroughs in Britain. It...
Mr Ernest Roberts: I am pleased that the hon. Member for Upminster (Sir N. Bonsor) has introduced the Bill. I have listened to the speech of the Minister of State, Home Office but I am certain that words will not bring about the protection that the Bill requires from the Government. Some positive actions have to be taken arising from the passage of such a Bill. I quote one sentence from the explanatory...