Madeleine Moon: It is with great pride that I rise to make my maiden speech, following the hon. Member for Reading, East (Mr. Wilson) and the others who today have made their first speeches in the House. Sometimes it is more difficult to speak late in the evening, knowing the quality that one has to follow. In the early hours of 6 May, I promised the people of Bridgend that I would be working for them...
Madeleine Moon: Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is only right to borrow to invest? Borrowing is now lower than at any time under the previous Administration, who borrowed to fund unemployment in constituencies such as mine in Bridgend.
Madeleine Moon: As a Welsh Member, it ill behoves me perhaps to comment on the creation of natural England, but during the recent election I talked to a lot of regional wildlife recorders in my constituency. They certainly welcomed the proposals that will affect Wales in the Bill. I pick up on my hon. Friend's comment about rural communities. Often, the local wildlife recorders will be the drivers behind...
Madeleine Moon: In Bridgend, everything is in place: our licensing committee has been expanded, we have additional sub-committees, members have been trained, and training has been provided to the trade to ensure that applications can come in. There does, however, seem to be a problem with getting applications in. I accept that that is an issue. The local authority has done its best—back in February, there...
Madeleine Moon: Does the Secretary of State agree that the greatest legacy of the Olympics will be its inspiration to children and young people to achieve their potential in sport? That will give us a future generation of capable athletics and sports students who will be able to take us forward into the next century. Could the Secretary of State also comment on the discussions that have been taking place to...
Madeleine Moon: I share with the hon. Member for Cheltenham (Mr. Horwood) a background of working in Alzheimer's disease societies and with people with dementia. Like him, I recognise the problems in accessing money faced by that Cinderella sector. Equally, however, as I have sat here today and listened to the various speakers, I have been aware that my experience in Bridgend is not the same as that of the...
Madeleine Moon: Will the Minister, as part of his consideration of the consultation on the Pensions Commission, examine the plight of carers such as Mrs. Hill of Aberkenfig in my constituency, who had provided care for her daughter for 41 years but who, on reaching retirement age, lost her invalid care allowance and then had to provide the care in return for only her pension? Can we consider how carers can...
Madeleine Moon: I wonder whether it would be helpful to look at the full sentence. One develops and tests a concept. I appreciate that techniques would be needed to test and develop those concepts, but one needs to have the capacity to develop concepts if one is doing anything experimental, which is exactly what the clause deals with. For the Minister’s information, I, too, wondered what the acquisition of...
Madeleine Moon: The pupils of Tondu primary school, like many of our school children, dream of seeing an end to world poverty, climate change and trade injustice. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the members of the G8 summit have a unique opportunity to turn those children's dreams into reality, and that to fail would be to fail the children of many generations?
Madeleine Moon: Having worked as a care standards inspector, and having been responsible for the investigation and consideration of a number of complaints including "protection of vulnerable adults" investigations of abuse in care homes, I fear that this is a circular route. People who already consult the inspectorate make very serious complaints, such as the one that was investigated at the care home cited...
Madeleine Moon: The sort of work that the commission could undertake was exemplified in a meeting that my hon. Friend and I attended last night with BT Wales, when we discussed how BT could, through the improved use of services such as broadband, help more people to continue working in rural communities through homeworking. That would bring opportunities for people to retain their expertise and remain in...
Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment his Department has made of the Office of Fair Trading's provisional view on exclusive wholesale territories for supplies of newspapers and magazines; and what steps the Department is taking to ensure that supplies to small retailers are protected.
Madeleine Moon: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs if she will instruct the Bridgend coroner, Mr. Walters, to provide doctors at the Oaktree Surgery in Bridgend with copies of post mortems carried out on their patients.
Madeleine Moon: During the previous two days of discussion in Committee, it has been interesting to hear how different Members have represented their rural communities. We have heard from the hon. Member for South-East Cornwall (Mr. Breed) about the idyll of rural communities in Cornwall, and we have heard about the tremendous variety of mining villages from my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield,...
Madeleine Moon: I beg to move amendment No. 128, in clause 41, page 14, line 39, leave out ‘promote’ and insert ‘ensure’.
Madeleine Moon: I listened to the Minister’s explanations on clause 40 and was particularly pleased to hear his assurance that a responsibility will be placed on local authorities to include biodiversity issues in planning application forms. In many respects, the issues covered by clauses 41 and 42 flow from clause 40. We are talking about the Secretary of State and the National Assembly for Wales having...
Madeleine Moon: I am aware of that. However, as always, it is a voice and what matters is how often that voice is listened to. The hon. Gentleman will agree that that voice is often crying in the wilderness. We are looking for a chance to ensure that the list is proactive and not passive. We have such lists in Wales. The issue is the status of the list. The hon. Member for the traffic jam of South-East...
Madeleine Moon: I am sorry to hear the Minister’s reply. It is because the list has little impact in Wales that I tabled the amendments. It is given scant regard because its status and authority are in doubt. The stance that he has taken will ensure that that happens in England, too. I shall take heart from his words about clause 40 and the idea that recognition of the Government’s determination to move...
Madeleine Moon: I rise briefly to speak to the amendments, and declare my interest in that I, too, am a member of the RSPB, and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, as well as my local wildfowl trust. I was concerned to hear the vision expressed by the hon. Member for South-East Cambridgeshire of inspectors trawling through the garden sheds of Great Britain looking for unwanted pesticides. I hope that the...
Madeleine Moon: I was not suggesting that gamekeepers were responsible. What I was saying was that such organisations, along with those that have lobbied us, have a responsibility to the Government to ensure that people are fully aware of the implications of the legislation, so that people are not found with pesticides that they should not have once the legislation is enacted. I was not attempting to...