Lord Wade of Chorlton: I hope that my noble friends on the Front Bench will listen very carefully to what the Minister said; it seems a sensible way forward.
Lord Wade of Chorlton: Noble Lords will agree—if I may say so to the Minister—that those in the money-laundering business make sure that they have very good methods of identification.
Lord Wade of Chorlton: What I know about this issue is what I learned when I was on the scrutiny committee for the Bill. As my noble friend Lady Buscombe said, we recommended that the space between the leisure complexes within the large casinos and the actual casino part should be well protected. But the evidence that we took from those who are likely to invest in the casinos persuaded us that they have extremely...
Lord Wade of Chorlton: My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Thomas. I am delighted that he has been able to join us today and to give me the opportunity to congratulate him on the excellent job he did as chairman of the North West Regional Development Agency. He established it in great style. I hope that it has been able to continue in that direction. I agree with him that it is terribly...
Lord Wade of Chorlton: My Lords, I should first declare an interest. I live near Chester and have business interests in Liverpool, so I use the tunnel fairly frequently. However, that does not stop me from accepting that the rates have to increase. I am very happy to accept the Bill's proposal that the costs and tolls should be index linked. I think that that makes sense. I accept the argument that those who use...
Lord Wade of Chorlton: I support the amendment, but perhaps I may draw the attention of the Minister to the recent report of your Lordships' Science and Technology Select Committee into the future of microprocessing, which identifies the technology that now exists for the development of what we call in our report, "ambient computing". It makes possible all that has been suggested should be done to be done very...
Lord Wade of Chorlton: My Lords, I thank the Minister for the encouraging comments about our report. We look forward to receiving the Government's response. All the members of the Select Committee are willing, and most of us are able, to work with the Government if they desire to bring about some of the ideas. I also thank my noble friend Lord Hodgson for his support for our report and for his helpful comments. I...
Lord Wade of Chorlton: rose to move, That this House takes note of the report of the Science and Technology Committee, Chips for Everything: Britain's opportunities in a key global market (2nd Report, HL Paper 13).
Lord Wade of Chorlton: My Lords, it gives me great pleasure to present to noble Lords the report of the Science and Technology Select Committee, Chips for Everything, on the future of microprocessing. The world has seen the dramatic impact of this new technology, which is only some 50 years old and has now created one of the largest industries in the world. It employs many thousands of people throughout the world...
Lord Wade of Chorlton: My Lords, is the Minister aware that at the Christie Hospital in Manchester we now have the leading radiotherapy research centre in the world? We have recently installed the latest equipment available anywhere in the world. We paid for it entirely through funds raised locally, without any government resources—and no one was taxed a penny.
Lord Wade of Chorlton: My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner, for bringing forward this matter for debate. My interest is in seeing development in Blackpool. Therefore, I want to speak in support of the resort casinos which are proposed and encouraged in the report. In speaking, I have the support of about 71 per cent of the people in Blackpool, all the major organisations in Blackpool, the...
Lord Wade of Chorlton: My Lords, I do not know whether what I wish to say will form one of the erudite speeches, but I shall give my non-scientific view of the matter. I thank the chairman, the noble Lord, Lord Oxburgh, for doing a marvellous job. I was enormously impressed throughout the inquiry by his breadth of intellect and his enormous ability to bring some expert knowledge to every aspect of what to me was a...
Lord Wade of Chorlton: My Lords, I begin by declaring an interest as a small farmer and property owner, as chairman of a company that is involved with regeneration in the rural and urban economy, as a director of a major food company and as the president of the Combined Heat and Power Association. I have nothing to do with education whatsoever but that did not stop me from enjoying the speech of the noble Lord,...
Lord Wade of Chorlton: My Lords, perhaps I may come back to the Minister on that point. He has not answered my specific point as to why there is a statutory obligation to examine environmental matters and no statutory duty on planning authorities to take into consideration the economic needs of their region. That has not been changed by any recent planning guidance.
Lord Wade of Chorlton: My Lords, before my noble friend sits down, perhaps I may make the point that what I sought to explain was that a visitor from Germany may spend, perhaps, £10,000 on a week's visit and all he takes home with him is a brace of pheasants.
Lord Wade of Chorlton: My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Peel for introducing this debate and covering all the major points so splendidly. It was also a great pleasure to hear the noble Lord opposite extolling the virtues of Cheshire cheese. That is the first time that I have heard it from the Benches opposite. Let us hope that more noble Lords on the Benches opposite will extol the virtues of Cheshire cheese....
Lord Wade of Chorlton: asked Her Majesty's Government: What plans they have for the future of the Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington, in view of the decision to site the joint United Kingdom/French Synchrotron Diamond Project at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxford.
Lord Wade of Chorlton: My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. However, I am sure that he appreciates that the Government's decision over this matter caused considerable concern in the North West, particularly among the industry and businesses which make use of the facility and the science people within the North West. Can he confirm whether the £25 million being made available to the North West will be new...
Lord Wade of Chorlton: I should like to speak to Amendments Nos. 55 and 56, both of which are supported by the TEC National Council. The purpose of Amendment No. 55, which adds the point to, "encourage links between education and business", is to draw attention to what could be a great increase in demand for new and innovative ways of educating people. We are all aware of the need to build a demand structure within...
Lord Wade of Chorlton: Before the noble Lord sits down, let me say that in relation to Amendment No. 55 my point in regard to business and education was not just in terms of relationships, working together and so on. It related also to the contribution that business can make to education in stimulating more innovative ways of using new technologies to educate people that they may not be employing themselves, but...