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8.28 pm
Mr. Peter L. Pike (Burnley): I shall follow the hon. Member for Taunton (Mr. Nicholson) and mention two of subjects that he touched on. At the start of his speech he mentioned BSE. Any hon. Member like myself, with some farmland in the constituency, will recognise the problems. I met the local National Farmers Union a few weeks ago and the farmers are greatly concerned. They stressed to me the problem of the reduction of the compensation level; the problem of casually fallen stock; the question of the delays in the 30-month cull, and the problems that will be caused if it is extended indefinitely, especially for winter feeding. Those problems need to be resolved as speedily as possible.
The second issue was mentioned by the hon. Member for Taunton at the end of his speech--the problem of drinking in public. I wish to emphasise a slightly different point. It is common in my constituency, and probably in many others, for people, when they move from one pub to another, to take their glasses and bottles and to deposit them anywhere en route when they have finished drinking. On the following day, especially on Saturday and Sunday, someone could open a shop selling the glasses that have been abandoned around the town. The glasses get broken and are dangerous.
The hon. Member for Belfast, South (Rev. Martin Smyth) knows the issues of Northern Ireland well, but it is not a subject on which I speak--not because I am not concerned, but because I know that the problems are complex and I do not pretend to know the answer. As someone who has visited Manchester and seen the devastation wreaked on the city centre by one bomb--it is a miracle that nobody was killed--I must tell Sinn Fein
that it will never get a solution through violence and it needs to return to a ceasefire as soon as possible. I hope to see a peaceful solution to the problem of Northern Ireland as soon as possible.
Like the hon. Member for Belfast, South, I welcome the move to draft Bills, because they will give us the opportunity to consider ideas before legislating. I hope that that will prevent some of the errors that appear in legislation and that we will not fall into the traps that we have in the past by legislating too hastily.
The hon. Gentleman referred to the draft Bill on identity cards. I have no strong views one way or another, but I remember that in the 1950s the Conservatives said that they would abolish that piece of socialism and that we should all burn our identity cards. Because the Tories said that we should destroy them, I kept mine and I have still got it. It is my first link with Burnley because it was issued to me at the start of the war when I was an evacuee in Burnley, my mother's home town. I will not throw it away now, and I still remember the number--it is my national health number--NFAU 198/5.
Several Conservative Members have referred to the single currency, but they did not all express the same view. My constituency is heavily dependent on manufacturing industry and it has one of the highest levels of manufacturing employment--more than 50 per cent. of the work force is employed in the manufacturing sector. Nearly all industries are now linked with Europe--they sell parts to Europe or import bits. The aerospace industry and the motor car industry depend on their links with Europe. The point was made to me time after time during the summer recess by local managers that, if Britain does not enter the single currency, industries will still have to deal with the single currency. If my local industries have to deal in the euro and fix prices at the start of the year and Britain is not in the single currency, what will happen to the pound? They believe that jobs could be put in jeopardy if we are not part of the single currency from the start.
In the Gracious Speech, we heard that legislation on education will be introduced. I hope that the Government do not believe that the expansion of the assisted places scheme, the establishment of new grammar schools or the extension of selection will solve any of the current problems in education. Some parents in my constituency still have not resolved the problem of secondary school places for their children. Five parents are still keeping their children away from the school that has been offered to them and are organising their education among themselves. The Government's proposal will not solve any problems. It will create more problems and give the elite better opportunities and the mass of the children in our constituencies a worse education. That is the wrong direction for education.
Nursery vouchers are another issue that we must think about again. Westminster and Wandsworth, two of the pilot Conservative authorities, are not enthusiastic about the voucher scheme. My constituency has a high provision of nursery places and we are worried about what will happen to the three-year-olds who have nursery places. Will the nursery voucher scheme for four-year-olds cream money away from local education authorities? We believe that opportunities for the children of Lancashire and Burnley will be reduced by the voucher scheme. It is time that all children had the opportunity of nursery education without the nonsense of the voucher system.
The Queen's Speech mentioned the national health service and I wait to see what the provisions on primary care will mean. I hope that they will not mean the creeping and crawling extension of privatisation and the commercialisation of health care provision. I am worried about the dental service provision and, as my hon. Friend the Member for The Wrekin (Mr. Grocott) said, I have raised that issue several times in the House. I met the East Lancashire health authority on Friday to discuss that issue.
The position is changing all the time, but currently only one dental practice in Burnley is willing to take new national health service patients. One problem is that, if the dentists go over to the private schemes provided by BUPA or Denplan, they get the same remuneration for half the number of patients as they get from the national health service. We must address that issue. Incidentally, I do not know whether it is good for people to be dentists, because they are supposed to have one of the highest suicide levels. It is time that we had a dental service available to everyone, everywhere, instead of the gradual reduction that we see now.
Crime is another issue addressed in the Queen's Speech and more legislation is proposed. When I became an election agent in Burnley in 1964, crime was not an issue that was raised by people, but it is now at the top of the agenda. That is a sad reflection on 17, nearly 18, years of Tory rule and on the development of society during that period. I do not blame everything on the Conservative party, although it has some responsibility for the changes.
So many people are now afraid to leave their homes or to go down to the town centre. People feel imprisoned in their homes and that is a sad reflection on society in 1996. Burnley is not unique and the problem is not confined to council estates. It is found everywhere. Whenever I go to a meeting, I find nobody who does not know someone who has been a victim of crime, whether among friends or families, neighbours or workmates. It did not use to be like that and we must all tackle the problem.
I welcome the fact that the Prime Minister has changed direction on a stalking Bill and a paedophile register. The country will welcome that change of view in the knowledge that the Government will take action. If, however, the Government had supported the Stalking Bill introduced by my hon. Friend the Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Ms Anderson), she would have been prepared to amend it to meet the Government's requirements. That could have been done a few months ago, and my hon. Friend's Bill could have been an Act by now. That is a failure for which the Government are responsible.
When we debated the Queen's Speech in November 1995, we knew that it contained two proposed Bills on housing matters. One of the issues was homelessness. Changes in legislative provision will be introduced speedily, but adequate preparation for them has not been made. Those who will implement the changes still do not know how they will make them work.
Regardless of politics, almost everyone involved in housing, such as local authorities and housing associations, and especially all those concerned with homelessness, believes that the new, incoming legislation will create more problems than it will solve. It is seen as bad legislation but it is recognised that it is on the statute
book. Those who are involved say to the Government, "Give us the detail of how the new legislation will work. We suggest that implementation be delayed for a few months to ensure that the changeover takes place a little more smoothly."
In my constituency there are pre-first world war terrace houses. The loss of mandatory grants will cause major problems when implementation takes place next year.
The Government have failed to address the real housing problem. More houses should be built for rent. Sadly the Government are not doing that, but they should be given that there is a major housing problem throughout the country. It is incredible that fewer than 2,000 council houses were built last year. We want to see houses built of good quality. We should not engage in a game where properties are built purely for the sake of numbers. We all have some degree of guilt for what was done in the 1960s. We are now demolishing some of the housing tragedies of that time. Some of the housing then built was worse than that which it replaced.
We are told in the Queen's Speech that there is to be a state visit to Pakistan and India next year. I am sure that there will be many celebrations in this country in mid-August next year, given the 50 years of independence of Pakistan and India. The greatest thing that could be done to make the celebrations truly great events would be to bring to an end what people in India and Pakistan regard as unfinished business, and that is Kashmir. I believe that the Government could do more to try to make both Pakistan and India--perhaps India is most at fault--come together to end the problem so as to let the people of Kashmir determine which way they want to go in future. It would be tremendous if, during the 50th year of independence, the people of Kashmir were allowed self-determination.
An issue that is not taken up by the Queen's Speech, but which should be, was the subject of an article in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph on 18 October. The article states:
"Sixty percent of households in Burnley claim some kind of state benefit with the average amount being £32."
That is per week. The article continues:
"People living in a third of Burnley properties claim housing and council tax benefits . . . A quarter of Burnley households contain only pensioners, with 45 percent of the elderly suffering long-term illness. In the Brunshaw area of town 23.8 percent of the residents suffer from long-term illness."
It tells us:
"the average hourly rate of pay in Burnley is £3.48, compared to the National 1993 New Earnings Survey of £7.83. Burnley's annual average gross income, excluding all benefits, is £7,085 and in Asian households only £5,870 before benefits."
It is clear that some households will not be in receipt of average pay, but at the same time we are told in the Queen's Speech that the Government will seek to double living standards over the next 25 years. That is the Government's target. Many of my constituents have grave doubts about seeing such an improvement. There is real poverty in areas such as the one that I represent. We need a national minimum wage and we need a change of government. There is a need also for positive policies. The Government have failed, and it is time for them to go.
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