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might be in their late teens or twenties, or may be considerably older. Some may have handicaps and difficulties with reading skills. The usual method of assisting such people in Leicestershire and Rutland--and probably in other counties--is either to work in small groups with a maximum of 10 students with individual support and some voluntary assistance, or, in many cases, on a one-to-one basis in the student's home or in a neutral place such as a church hall. These people do not find it easy to go to formal classes in colleges of further education or schools.I have received a letter from some people who act as tutors or perform similar roles in Syston in my constituency :
"Every student within the scheme is visited in their home by a specially trained tutor. The tutor finds out what the student's needs are and informs them of what adult basic education actually is. They tell them that the groups are small and informal, you leave whenever you feel ready and join when you want to. Students are treated as adults and therefore all our materials are adult based."
The lady goes on to ask :
"Informal groups such as ours help to build confidence and enable students to apply for better jobs or to attend further courses Will an FE teacher be able to handle this situation correctly so as not to cause further harm, whilst getting information at the same time?" She goes on to ask whether students who are physically or mentally handicapped or who have Down's syndrome will be catered for in the new arrangements. She wants to know what will happen to groups during the day, held for unemployed people, mothers at home and people who cannot attend during the evening. These are genuine questions, and they must be answered.
I have had a number of moving letters from students who are receiving help by means of adult basic education in community colleges, and receiving one- to-one teaching. I want clear assurances from my right hon. Friend that the matter will be properly dealt with.
My hon. Friend the Minister of State wrote to me on28 October on this very matter :
"We want to see a pattern of provision which makes the best use of facilities and expertise and which is readily accessible to local communities. This will mean using all resources properly--whether these are in further education colleges or in adult education centres and colleges run by local education authorities. We shall expect colleges and local authorities to work closely together, building on existing collaborative links, to secure a pattern of provision for adults which best suits local circumstances and is accessible to local communities. We are looking at this might be achieved." I presume that my hon. Friend meant, "looking at what might be achieved in this regard."
I want clear assurances from my right hon. Friend that matters have moved on since that letter and that Ministers can reassure me, my hon. Friend the Member for Harborough and people from other county authorities in which adult basic education is handled on a one-to-one basis. We need to know that the new arrangements will not disadvantage these people, who are struggling and who often experienced difficulties in their school careers. They are trying to bring their reading and numeracy skills up to scratch so that they can go on to other courses, to better jobs or to any job at all. We must help these disadvantaged people. I am worried by the number of letters that I have had from them. They, in turn, are worried about the new proposals ; and I look to my right hon. Friend to offer me clear assurances that their needs will be tackled.
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Sir John Farr (Harborough) : I am much obliged to my hon. Friend for giving way to me on this important subject. I echo all that he has said. Leicestershire is in a peculiar situation, because we have spent more than the national average on one-to-one education and adult basic education, and we want to be absolutely certain that anything the Minister puts in place under the new legislation will provide us with no less than we already enjoy in the form of high standards.Mr. Latham : I am most grateful to my hon. Friend for putting it so well. He reflects my views exactly. I commend his views, my own and those of my constituents to my right hon. Friend.
5.53 pm
Mr. David Trimble (Upper Bann) : I should like to bring to the attention of the House serious matters that arose in Northern Ireland on Friday 22 November.
That morning, the people of Northern Ireland read in their papers and heard on the broadcast media reports that, in its first ever decision, the Fair Employment Tribunal, established by an Act of this House in 1989, had found the Eastern health and social services board guilty of religious discrimination when making an appointment. That was regrettable, but my complaint is not with the finding of the tribunal. The news went on to say that the tribunal had found that it was discrimination, and thus unlawful, to display in a workplace the union flag and pictures of the royal family. It was also said that one of the board's supervisors had displayed a photograph of herself and a leader of a principal party in Ulster. We were told that that was also unlawful.
These reports were based on a Fair Employment Commission press release issued the previous night. The first page of that release, after announcing in its first two sentences that the tribunal had held the board guilty of discrimination in failing to appoint a Catholic laundry worker to a permanent position, continued : "The tribunal recorded that the officers of the EHSSB who appeared and gave evidence appeared to know of the existence of the board's equal opportunities policy but that none of them were acquainted with the contents of that policy and none of them appeared to be in the least disturbed by that fact."
The press release further recorded that the undisputed evidence of the applicant was that party tunes were played in the laundry, the union flag was displayed in the laundry, pictures of the royal family were displayed, and one supervisor displayed a photograph of herself and the leader of a political party in Ulster ; but that the Eastern health and social services board stated that the board did not have a policy on such matters as flags and had no reason to think that offence would be taken to the union flag. The tribunal described the respondents' evidence as "contradictory and fundamentally so". This press release clearly gave prominence not to the reasons why the board failed to appoint the applicant but to what, on any reading of the case, was a peripheral issue. This emphasis was reinforced by the behaviour of one of the commission's directors who, the night the press release was issued, telephoned the main media outlets to let them know that the commission was releasing an important statement on flags and emblems. That of course biased the discussion the next day. The director followed that up in interviews. I did not hear those interviews, but the
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director's conduct of them has been described to me as aggressive and as leaving the listener in no doubt that these emblems must be removed from the workplace.The press release and the comments on it gave considerable offence to a wide range of people in Ulster who were appalled by the disrespect shown by a public body to the royal family.
The story so far is bad enough. It gets worse when one realises that the reaction of the press and its presentation of the story was based on a complete misinterpretation of the tribunal's decision. The case concerned the failure of the board to make an appointment to a job and it turned on the reasons why other candidates had been preferred, and on the interviewing panel's assessment of those other candidates.
The tribunal's reasons concentrated on the conduct of the interview. Paragraph 7(g) of the tribunal's judgment reads : "Whilst it is not in any sense conclusive regard can nevertheless be paid to"--
three matters are mentioned here, and the fourth is :
"whatever may be said about the effects of the union flag or indeed pictures of the royal family in the work place in Northern Ireland, the fact that the local management permitted the playing of party tunes in the laundry at Purdysburn".
It is clear that in this part of the judgment the tribunal is taking into account only the playing of party tunes, which is fair enough. I should perhaps point out that "party tunes" does not refer to the sort of festive music in which people might be engaged at this time of the year. Party tunes might involve on one side Orange songs and on the other, Republican songs--or any other form of what we call diddle-de-de-music.
It is fair enough to criticise the playing of party tunes, but it is also clear that the tribunal does not take into account at any point in its decision the display of the union flag and pictures of the royal family. The most that can be said from the Fair Employment Commission's viewpoint is that the tribunal left those matters to one side and criticised the absence of a board policy on them. But the FEC distorted matters so as to give a false impression. In the reasons given by the tribunal no reference was made to the photograph, which appeared prominently in the press release of the FEC. I consider the most damning aspect in the FEC's press release was the description by the tribunal of the board's evidence as "contradictory and fundamentally so", which, in the FEC's press release, comes after the words :
"but that the [board] informed [the tribunal] that the board did not have a policy on such matters as flags and had no reason to think offence would be taken to the Union flag."
That gives the reader the impression that "contradictory and fundamentally so" is related to this aspect. But it comes nowhere near the brief mention of flags in the tribunal's judgment ; it comes at the tribunal's assessment of the evidence of the interviewing panel and its reasons for preferring someone else to the applicant. It is a comment on the evidence of the chairman of the interviewing panel when comparing the applicant with one of those successful in obtaining employment.
I have said enough to show that the commission issued a press release which created a false impression. Sadly, I have to say that I am convinced that that false impression was created deliberately. This was not a case in which someone, in his enthusiasm, misinterpreted a complex legal document. The judgment was fairly short and clear.
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Moveover, the commission director who issued the press release is a lawyer who is perfectly capable of reading a short tribunal judgment correctly. She cannot have forgotten how to read a case so soon. You see, Mr. Speaker, I am sorry to say that that commissioner is known to me not just as a lawyer but as a person of strong nationalist opinions who would probably be hostile to the display of our national flag or our sovereign's portrait at any point in Northern Ireland. There are important issues of principle. It is appalling that a public body should issue such falsehoods. That will only reinforce the widespread impression in Northern Ireland that the commission is biased, following its own political agenda. I am sorry to say that that impression is strengthened by the commission's silence since I first exposed the errors more than two weeks ago.The fair employment code of practice speaks of promoting a harmonious working environment where no worker feels threatened or intimidated. That is a fair objective. One can easily think of slogans and emblems which would intimidate. One could even think of circumstances in which the union flag might be used in an intimidating way--for example, by pushing it aggressively at people--but I cannot see how it can be said that our national flag or pictures of the royal family can by themselves ever be threatening or intimidating.
If they were--if the commission's apparent view on the matter were followed --it would lead to absurdities. Portraits of Her Majesty are displayed as a matter of course in schools and police stations. The union flag is regularly used in advertising and packaging. It is even used by some firms which bear the name "British". Are those uses to be outlawed ?
It is significant that in this matter the commission has pursued and attacked only those emblems which express a British identity. It does not pursue the emblems of Irish nationalism with the same vigour, and it is silent on Roman Catholic religious symbols prominent in some schools and a national health service hospital--symbols which many would find offensive, not just on aesthetic grounds. The Northern Ireland Office must curb that campaign. I wrote to the Secretary of State on that matter on 25 November, nearly three weeks ago. Not only has there been no reply but to my knowledge no statement has been made by the Northern Ireland Office on the matter. It is time for that silence, which might appear to give consent, to be ended. I hope that the Leader of the House will arrange for a statement to be made on the matter before the House rises. 6.3 pm
Mr. Douglas French (Gloucester) : I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Sir M. McNair-Wilson) on the moving way in which he presented his case on behalf of those who have received contaminated blood. I also congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen and Stourbridge (Sir J. Stokes) on a vintage performance in which he reminded the House of the great traditions and components of British public life. He is a touchstone of sound values and common sense, which we neglect at our peril.
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I was interested in the case made by the hon. Member for Jarrow (Mr. Dixon). He spoke about rail safety, and I want to refer to road safety, which merits attention before the House rises. Road safety usually finds a place in the Christmas Adjournment debate, because it is a sad fact that, during the holiday, there will be many road accidents. I hope that the number of those will be down on last year, but I am afraid that many will be killed or injured and vehicles will be damaged.In all such cases, the drivers will need to produce details of their insurance. Many will be able to provide such details for the police or for the other drivers involved on the spot, but unfortunately many will not. Some will not have their insurance certificate or cover note with them, some will think that they have it but on looking will find that they do not know where it is, and some may have to produce their documents at a police station within five days, a procedure which is reported to cost the police about £20 million a year. Some involved in an accident will adopt an indignant attitude because they believe that they are innocent, and may refuse to produce their documents altogether for fear that that might affect their no claims bonus.
In some cases, it will be discovered that the insurance cover has expired, that the driver has no insurance cover at all, and that has serious consequences. Sometimes that situation might exist knowingly or even deliberately, and in other cases it will be the result of an oversight.
On the face of it, that problem could be eased by requiring evidence of insurance to be displayed in the windscreen of every vehicle in the same way as the tax disc provides immediate and visible evidence that a vehicle has been taxed and may be used on the road. In the same way, an insurance disc could be required to be displayed in the windscreen, and would provide visible evidence of insurance cover.
That would not be a total solution to the problem. The uninsured motorist who has failed for one reason or another to obtain the necessary insurance cover may not be persuaded by that procedure any more than the person who is determined to avoid the payment of the tax necessarily finds that the requirement to have a tax disc persuades him to abide by the law. But it can be fairly said that, if the tax disc were not required to be displayed, the level of evasion would be likely to be higher. It follows from that that, if an insurance disc were required to be displayed, the number of uninsured motorists would be likely to decrease.
It has been estimated that the number of drivers driving while uninsured is in the region of 1 million. Some may have stolen the vehicle that they are driving, a situation which the House had an opportunity to consider on Monday, 9 December, when it debated the Aggravated Vehicle-Taking Bill, but tonight I am not so much concerned with those who steal vehicles--they can be dealt with by separate legislation--as with those who decide to take a chance on not being insured. They may think that it is a fair bet that they are unlikely to run into difficulties if they do not have insurance cover, and will at the same time save a considerable amount of money. There are also those who simply neglect to get cover because they are disorganised or cannot be bothered, and who do not appreciate its importance.
The proposal for an insurance disc has some objections. Under section 143 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, the user of a vehicle is required to be insured rather than the vehicle
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itself. Some insurance policies cover an insured person and his spouse or a named driver only ; it is not the vehicle that is insured but the individual. Therefore, an insurance disc would not necessarily prove that the person driving the vehicle was insured to drive it.A similar difficulty might be said to arise in regard to the use to which a vehicle is being put. Some policies restrict use to social, domestic and pleasure purposes only, and that problem would not automatically be solved by displaying an insurance disc on the windscreen. Such a disc would not provide total proof, because the terms of the policy might be being broken. However, it would provide usable and tangible evidence that cover of some kind existed in relation either to the driver or vehicle ; evidence of the existence of an insurance policy, rather than proof of its adequacy. It would be possible to incorporate in the design of the disc information about the insurance cover in force. It could specify the name of the driver, which should be no more difficult than specifying the make of a car on a tax disc. Likewise, specifying the restricted use attributable to a particular driver should be no more difficult than specifying on a tax disc the class of vehicle that it covers. As to insurance being based on individuals rather than on vehicles, most people are accustomed to driving one or perhaps two vehicles most of the time--but an individual could display his or her own personal insurance disc in the windscreen at the beginning of a journey in any other car that they might drive.
Those arrangements have found favour in several other countries. It is the prevailing system in France, Italy, Belgium, and the Irish Republic. It was introduced in Ireland and France as long ago as 1986, and has proved very successful. In Ireland, it was estimated that, prior to the system being introduced, as many as 20 per cent. of drivers on the roads in the Republic were uninsured. Within one year, the number fell to between 6 and 8 per cent. It was estimated also that each uninsured car was costing as much as £70 extra on the insurance of those drivers who did take out insurance.
In the Republic of Ireland and in France, it has become the practice for insurers to provide discs as part of the certificate issued when a policy is granted, in the form of a tear-off section to be displayed in the vehicle's windscreen. If any details change during the term of the insurance, the old disc is called in and a new one is issued. That simple procedure has presented neither country with any difficulties.
The time may eventually come when the Chancellor of the Exchequer decides to abolish vehicle excise duty and the tax disc in favour of a duty on petrol. Successive Chancellors have considered doing so for a very long time, and Jersey is to adopt that system with effect from 1 January 1993. If that practice were adopted in the UK, it would bring to an end the annual regular check on insurance, under which drivers are required to produce insurance documents before a new tax disc is issued. That would increase the argument in favour of being required to display a separate insurance disc.
It remains an anomaly that, in order to obtain a vehicle excise disc that relates to a vehicle, one has to produce documents that relate to an individual. It is anomalous also that the driver's insurance may expire within a week of the issue of a tax disc that could remain valid for as long as one year afterwards.
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The scheme that I have described would discourage evasion and effect considerable savings in administrative and police costs, and in insurance premiums, and would provide greater certainty and knowledge for motorists. In due course, such a system could form part of a greater scheme in which driving licences, MOT certificates, excise duty, and insurance all found their way on to the same database, which would bring great benefits to the organisation of motoring in general. However, a good start could be made by the introduction of insurance discs.6.14 pm
Mrs. Alice Mahon (Halifax) : I should not want the House to adjourn for the Christmas recess until I have raised the issue of the desirability of the Government reviewing the distribution of food surpluses from Europe.
Today, I received a telephone call from a reporter on the Halifax Evening Courier informing me that, at 10 o'clock this morning, a constituent of mine--79-year-old Mrs. Maria Clark--died as she stood in the freezing cold, queuing for free surplus butter and beef that is distributed to those eligible for it. I understand that, earlier this week, two other elderly people collapsed as they queued for hours in the cold for that food.
In March, a member of the women's section of the Halifax branch of the Royal British Legion contacted me for advice on how she could help to distribute food surpluses. I contacted the local authority's director of social services, Mrs. Meryl Denton, who arranged for that lady to approach the local Council for Voluntary Services. It decided to apply for a licence to distribute food surpluses--as did another voluntary organisation, the Islamic Cultural Centre.
I tried to highlight through the local press the fact that Government policy meant that not all elderly people were eligible to free surplus food, but only those who are on income support, and that strict criteria had to be observed. The local press did a very good job in conveying that information to the public. However, many pensioners who believed that they could be recipients were left disappointed when they realised that they were not eligible. Such has been the increase in poverty during the last 12 years under a Conservative Government that 17,000 people in Halifax and the Calder valley are eligible for free butter and beef. The local authority cannot act as a distributor, and in any case does not have the money or the resources to do so, given the cuts that it has suffered in recent years as a consequence of poll tax capping and the rest.
Instead, applications to serve as distributors were made by the CVS and the Islamic Cultural Centre. I supported the former's application, but was unaware of the second. Nevertheless, I am pleased that the ICC applied, because the application by Mrs. Jackie Stark of the CVS was turned down by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. In August, she received notification that it had been made one day late. She was very cross, and disputed the fact that her application was late.
Given that it took the Ministry five months to respond, I cannot help but suspect petty bureaucracy and deliberate obstruction. The Ministry could be much more helpful to the voluntary sector, which is hard pressed trying to cope with the state's abandonment of caring for the less well-off.
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That left the Islamic Cultural Centre. I place on record my gratitude and thanks to that organisation, which works hard to distribute food to queues of literally thousands of people who turn up every time that it is available. It is a small organisation, and its centre cannot accommodate indoors all those who queue for the food. The Asian community are known for their respect for the elderly and concern for those who are not very well off. The ICC had a herculean task given the resources available to it, and it worked very hard.I can think of no other recent incident that serves to highlight the way in which the Government have divided society and impoverished our nation over the past 12 years. The queues for food are reminiscent of what we saw in the 1930s. I find it tragic that a 79-year-old woman should die in freezing cold conditions while queueing for food.
The Government should be ashamed of their inability to organise a better distribution method. Every community should provide a place to which people can take a voucher and collect the food to which they are entitled, without experiencing the humiliation of queueing in the cold. All pensioners should be automatically eligible to such provision, as should everyone who receives benefit. The present criterion is much too mean.
I understand that the United States has called today for a conference on food aid for people of the Soviet Union to be held in Washington. In the light of what has happened in my constituency, I feel that the United Kingdom should be included in that conference. 6.20 pm
Mr. William Powell (Corby) : I understand that the Select Committee on Sittings of the House--which is chaired by my right hon. Friend the Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Mr. Jopling)--is considering a proposal that Adjournment debates such as this should cease to be part of our procedure. I hope that, if any such proposal is made, the House will reject it.
Yet again, our debates this afternoon have been extremely interesting and informative. My hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen and Stourbridge (Sir J. Stokes) made a characteristically splendid speech, and the moral strength with which my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Sir M. McNair- Wilson) treats the subject that he raised is without parallel. The quiet authority with which he advanced his case made his speech one of the most impressive that I have ever heard in the House, and I hope very much that it will be taken seriously by my right hon. Friend and his colleagues.
I strongly agreed with what the hon. Member for Liverpool, Mossley Hill (Mr. Alton) said about Croatia. I am a member of the all-party group chaired by the hon. Gentleman, and I have twice called in the House for the recognition of Croatia. What is going on there now besmirches the reputation of our continent, and we must take a more robust attitude towards bringing the current dangerous nonsense to a halt.
We have heard other remarkable speeches this afternoon. It would be a great pity, and would diminish our procedures, if Adjournment debates ceased to take place.
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A year ago, my right hon. Friend the Member for Finchley (Mrs. Thatcher) asked for the prosecution of President Saddam Hussein for war crimes. She was quite right, and I strongly supported her view that he should be brought before a suitable international tribunal and required to account for his behaviour in the Gulf region. The United Kingdom, Germany and the United States are all extremely concerned about the prosecution of those who are alleged to have been involved in the bombing of the aeroplane that exploded over Lockerbie a year or two ago. Warrants are out for their arrest, and no one has a greater admiration than I for the work of the Lord Advocate and the constabulary of Dumfries and Galloway : they have carried out a magnificent investigation. The fact remains, however, that it will be virtually impossible for us to bring those whom we wish to hold to account before any criminal tribunal in this country. Moreover, we must be honest and admit that the reputation of the quality of justice administered in British courts is not as good as we should like, following the alarming miscarriages of justice that have taken place in recent years.My right hon. Friend the Member for Finchley was absolutely right to call for the prosecution of Saddam Hussein ; there is, however, no international tribunal before which he, or any other international criminal, can be brought to justice. I hope that the country will begin to take seriously the work that is being done in the United States and many other countries to establish such a tribunal, under the authority of the United Nations.
The first international court of criminal justice--I am not talking about appeal courts or bodies such as the European Court ; I am talking about first-instance criminal courts which try people to establish their guilt or innocence--was established in 1474, in Breisach, Germany. No fewer than 27 judges of the Holy Roman Empire--I imagine that my hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen and Stourbridge approves of the Holy Roman Empire just as much as you and I, Mr. Deputy Speaker--judged and condemned Peter von Hagenbach for his violations of the laws of God and man. He had allowed his troops to rape, kill and pillage innocent German citizens and their property. Modern international criminal law began with the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Those present--we heard about Prince Metternich only last week--discussed an international law relating to the suppression of the slave trade. Since then, there have been no fewer than 315 declarations, international instruments and protocols on substantive international criminal law, covering 22 crimes that could be recognised as having a genuinely international dimension : aggression, war crimes, unlawful use of weapons, crimes against humanity, genocide, apartheid, slavery and related practices, unlawful human experimentation, torture, piracy and crimes on board commercial vessels, aircraft hijacking and the sabotage of aircraft, kidnapping of diplomats and other internationally protected persons, the taking of civilian hostages, the mailing of explosive and dangerous objects, illicit drug cultivation and trafficking, destruction and theft of national and archaeological treasures, environmental damage, bribery of foreign public officials, international traffic in obscene materials, interference with submarine cables and the false accounting and theft of nuclear weapons and materials. Many of those are grounds on which an indictment or impeachment could be applied to
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Saddam Hussein--and ought to be--but the world has no tribunal before which he, or anyone else who could legitimately be charged with such crimes, can be tried.From time to time, efforts have been made to establish such an arrangement. At the end of the first world war, at Versailles, it was agreed that the Kaiser could be tried ; he was not tried. It was agreed that the Turkish leaders could be tried for the mass genocide of 600,000 Armenians during their occupation of the area in which Armenians lived during the first world war, but no progress was made. After the second world war, international tribunals were established at Nuremberg and in Tokyo, but their authority was subsequently undermined. Meanwhile, the United Nations has been trying to establish an international court of criminal jurisdiction. This is not the first time that I have raised the matter in the House. I did so in the debate on the Queen's Speech. I did not, of course, expect my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House to have sufficient grasp of the subject to reply, but I did expect him to pass on my views to the Foreign Office. I expect that he did so, but I have heard nothing from the Foreign Office about the action that it is taking. I regard that as disgraceful : I do not believe that the Foreign Office is doing anything about the matter, and it ought to be doing something.
An immense amount of work is being done in the world, under the leadership of one of the most remarkable legal scholars alive today--Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni, professor of law at De Paul University in Chicago, Illinois. His international institute has the support of the Italian Ministry of Justice in Syracuse, Sicily. Officials as well as academics in many countries have worked hard and the United Nations has published two draft constitutions for such an international court--the most recent was published in 1990. Professor Bassiouni took the leading role in the preparation of each, and is regarded as the UN draftsman on the subject.
What should we be doing? I have several suggestions. First, this country is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Given the change in the international situation since the collapse of the iron curtain, and the fact that the UN is now for the first time capable of operating in the framework which its founding fathers envisaged, we and the other permanent members of the Security Council should take a lead in bringing forward the draft convention which is in place and turning it into agreed international law with an agreed permanent international tribunal capable of enforcing it. I shall not go into detail on all the legal rules, and so on. They are all there. For the benefit of the House, they are easily available in the spring 1991 editions of the Nova Law Review and the Indiana International and Comparative Law Review. My right hon. Friend and our colleagues in the Foreign Office may find the articles by Professor Bassiouni in those two journals rather more interesting than many of the other documents that they may be given by their Departments to take away over the Christmas recess.
We need to start taking the matter seriously not only in the Security Council but in the European Community. Over the past few days, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, with our other right hon. Friends, has been involved most successfully at Maastricht, but in the new architecture of the European Community no place has been found for an international criminal tribunal dealing
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with European matters. I am convinced that, if there were such a tribunal, it would be easier to bring those accused of the Lockerbie bombing to justice.Surely that would be true in the dimension of Irish terrorism, too. The quality of justice in British courts has been called into question from Ireland so many times that I am sure that it would be easier to overcome the difficulties of extradition if we had an international tribunal operating on a European basis.
One of the biggest deficiencies in the European institutions is the absence of such an international court. I hope that we will use our presidency of the Council of Ministers in the second part of next year to advance and bring to a successful conclusion the establishment of such a court.
One other factor is noticeable. Not only is the Foreign Office doing very little, if anything, but almost none of the vast literature on the subject is British. Almost none comes from English or Scottish universities, or the professional literature of lawyers and law libraries. In this country, an international tribunal is a Cinderella subject. My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary and my right hon. and learned Friend the Lord Chancellor should do much more to stimulate the study of how such an international institution could be used to overcome some of the deficiencies in our present system. I have already said that Professor Bassiouni is one of the outstanding legal scholars in the world today. His work seems to be taken seriously in almost every country in the world--except this country. I am glad to say that in the United States Congress his work has been pursued with considerable vigour by Senator Specter and Congressman Jim Leach, who have brought the idea to the attention of the American public.
It is worth remembering that the US Senate voted by 97 votes to two that Saddam Hussein be brought to trial--but even if we manage to get hold of him, there would still be no place to try him. That problem must be dealt with.
In his seminal article in the Indiana International and Comparative Law Review, Professor Bassiouni concluded :
"We no longer live in a world where narrow conceptions of jurisdiction and sovereignty can stand in the way of an effective system of international co -operation for the prevention and control of international and transnational criminality. If the United States and the Soviet Union can accept mutual verification of nuclear arms controls, then surely they and other countries can accept a tribunal to prosecute not only drug traffickers and terrorists"--
and those who ensnare people into slavery, and so on--
"but also those whose actions constitute such crimes as aggression, war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture. Many of the international crimes for which the court would have jurisdiction are the logical extension of international protection of human rights."
I entirely agree with Professor Bassiouni. We proclaim human rights again and again. Many people both in the House and elsewhere have distinguished reputations for proclaiming human rights. Long may they continue--but it is not enough merely to declare human rights : we must provide a forum in which we can enforce them. Some human rights can be enforced in the domestic courts of individual countries, but the world is getting smaller all the time. More and more crimes are being carried out across borders, and many of those crimes are becoming more serious in their extent, scope and inhumanity.
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That is why it is our duty to do everything that we can to ensure that there is a tribunal available that has authority not only in our continent but throughout the world. Great Britain should take the lead.I urge my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House to ensure that this time my remarks are brought to the attention of the relevant Ministers, and that action is taken to ensure that an idea which I am certain would command wide support in this country if only people were aware of it, can make greater progress than it has done hitherto.
6.37 pm
Mr. Harry Barnes (Derbyshire, North-East) : There is one more Conservative Back-Bench Member who wishes to speak, and as the Front-Bench spokemen want to sum up soon, I shall try to split the remaining time between us. I imagine that if I take five minutes that will not be too long.
I apologise to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for the theme of my speech, because you, more than anyone else, already know what I shall say. I have raised the issue in the House with growing momentum since the Report stage of the Bill that introduced the poll tax, because it was obvious that that would have some devastating consequences. We now have empirical evidence and details to show that that was true : the poll tax has seriously damaged electoral registration in this country.
A report by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys reveals that 1 million people are missing from the electoral register--2.5 per cent. of those entitled to be registered. That represents the equivalent of 21 parliamentary seats--more seats than exist in Northern Ireland, for example --having their entire electorate disappear. But there is no problem with the franchise in Northern Ireland, because it never had the poll tax. The register there is in a healthy state.
The worst deficiency in the register is in youngsters coming up to vote for the first time--those approaching 18, who are called "attainers". The attainer figures in Northern Ireland are healthier than they have ever been. They are worse than they have been in recent years in Scotland, in England and in Wales. They began to become worse first in Scotland where the poll tax was introduced. The House should be deeply concerned about that.
I make no apology to the House for raising the issue, because I think that we should take the matter seriously. It should not be left to me to raise the matter as if it were my bugbear. The Government expecially should take the matter seriously. It is appropriate to raise the subject on the Christmas Adjournment because we are approaching the time when there must be a general election. We still have some opportunity to try to do something about the disastrous situation.
We cannot put the electoral register right before a general election, but we can at least show that we are aware of the problem. Money spent on seeking to encourage electoral registration would be worth while. Advertising on television, in cinemas and on billboards to encourage people to register is of vast importance. There are about 350,000 expatriate voters on the register who have been encouraged by new legislation. We have spent £22.50 of public money for each voter who has been registered. For
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registration in this country on what is supposed to be the compulsory register, we have spent one tenth of a penny per person. We should spend considerably more.There has been massive expenditure on all types of Government advertising, such as advertising for fancy employment schemes and for privatisation programmes. The money spent on advertising to encourage electoral registration amounted to 0.32 per cent. of the Government's total publicity expenditure.
The matter should seize us considerably. We are supposed to believe in democracy and in a full franchise, but those views are becoming dogma from the past. We repeat them without fully understanding them. The people who fought for the franchise through the Reform Acts of the 19th century and through the legislation that introduced votes for women in 1919 and 1928, which finally gave us a full franchise, understood the importance of people having a vote and a full say in decision making. It is now becoming a matter that should apply to Europe as a whole and to proper democratic federal structures in which the vote begins to mean something and is not neutralised by deals being done in secret by the Council of Ministers.
We must ensure that the franchise is correct. It would be bad enough if the franchise were being destroyed at random so that a cross-section of voting patterns was affected, but what is happening is worse. The poll tax has deterred from registration the people who have most to fear from its operation and who have the most reason to object to the Government. A fiddle is involved in the franchise. The Leader of the House knows the matter well, because I have often raised it with him. I hope that he will tell us tonight that something is being done to overcome the problem and that legislation will be introduced which stipulates that the two registers are kept wholly separate from each other and that the present arrangement by which they are linked by computer will cease.
We introduced legislation to try to separate the census from poll tax provisions in the Census (Confidentiality) Bill. If something similar were produced for the operation of the poll tax, it would at least be a sign that things were being done. The council tax, which is the likely successor to the poll tax, will still require a register for local authorities.
6.44 pm
Mr. David Amess (Basildon) : Before the House adjourns for the Christmas recess, I wish to raise three points. Last week, Essex county council decided to give my constituents and their children a Christmas present by announcing in a sub-committee that it intended to close Fryerns secondary school. The announcement came as a bolt out of the blue. There was no consultation and there was not even the common courtesy of informing the local Member of Parliament. As ever, the local socialists were out next day delivering leaflets saying, "Save Fryerns school. Vote Labour." They play at politics ; I intend to ensure that the school does not close. As long as I am Member of Parliament for Basildon, there will be no closure of schools in my constituency.
I have five children, which is not unusual for Basildon. In contrast to the rest of Essex, we have a growing population. The idea that the other six secondary schools could absorb the children from Fryerns schools is crazy.
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Over the past year, I have spent a lot of time working with the excellent headmaster, Mr. Slater, and his wonderful teaching staff. They offer the full range of the national curriculum, they concentrate on helping children who have special educational needs and they run an excellent adult education centre. We certainly need Fryerns school. I give Essex county council a warning. Fryerns school will not close and I intend to ensure that it does not close. At my surgery on Saturday, I had a deputation from shopkeepers in Whitmore way. In Basildon, we have the largest covered shopping centre in Europe. It is an excellent shopping centre and I hope that people throughout the country will do their Christmas shopping in Basildon. One effect of the covered shopping centre has been that local traders have suffered to an extent. The Basildon development corporation and the Commission for New Towns have spent a huge amount of British taxpayers' money on the infrastructure in Basildon. There is, of course, a duty for the CNT to return some of that investment to the British taxpayer.However, it came as a tremendous blow to the local shopkeepers when they recently received the rent review on the leases of their shops. Most of those people are small shopkeepers who have been in the town for 30 years. They have found that their rents have gone up by 50 or 75 per cent. That is not acceptable. Trading conditions over the past 18 months, as we all know, have not been favourable in the south. We need to help those small shopkeepers stay in business and the rent proposals are quite unacceptable.
Earlier this year, I tried to amend the Pet Animals Act 1951. I know that it may seem unpleasant to spoil children's fun at Christmas, but, extraordinarily, under the Act minors are allowed to go into pet shops without their parents' permission and to purchase all kinds of animals including dogs and exotic reptiles. I am delighted to say that the House gave my Bill an unopposed Second Reading. The Bill was referred to a Standing Committee, but we ran out of time. I hope that the House will unite on the issue. We can then amend the 1951 Act so that any child who wishes to purchase a pet will have to have the permission of a parent or, better still, be accompanied by a parent. As the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals can testify, many pets are abandoned at Christmas time. Let us make this a happy Christmas for human beings and also for animals.
6.49 pm
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