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8.44 pm
Mr. David Marshall (Glasgow, Shettleston): Eighteen wasted years must be the verdict of my constituents on the Tory Government's period in office. Thank goodness that the Queen's Speech is the last one produced by a Conservative Government that we shall hear for a long time.
The Government appear to be bereft of any policies apart from their obsession with law and order. That is highly ironic given the Conservative Government's record on that subject. Once upon a time, people believed that the Tory party was the party of law and order, but that is no longer a credible claim for them to make.
The Government express their concern about the apparent sad state of society and the family in the United Kingdom. They refer to the violence in our midst and the weakening of the family, but they conveniently forget, or ignore, that this very situation is the end product of 17 years of Tory rule. The Tories cannot blame the Labour Government for the mess that they themselves have created.
Why is it that, seven months after the Dunblane tragedy, the Government still cannot unanimously decide what their policy is to be on the vital issue of gun control? Contrast that with the situation in Australia, where, only three weeks after a crazed gunman slaughtered people in Tasmania, the new Government, and a Conservative one at that, introduced extremely tough anti-gun legislation. Does not the Prime Minister realise that the great British public, by an overwhelming majority, do not see the need for any ordinary citizen legally to possess a handgun of any kind? The public want a total ban on the possession of handguns. If the Government will not introduce such a ban, I sincerely hope that the incoming Labour Government will. I shall certainly vote for a total ban on handguns as soon as the opportunity arises.
I welcome the Prime Minister's partial U-turn on stalking, but why have the Government not made it clear exactly what they intend doing about stalkers? What has been trailed so far does not deal with the problem. This terrifying practice should be made a criminal offence and stalkers should be treated accordingly as criminals who deserve to be locked away.
I welcome also the Prime Minister's complete U-turn on proposals for a national paedophile register and, I hope, the prosecution of sex tourists. Such measures command widespread public support and there are no valid reasons why they cannot be introduced. I understand that in New Zealand a register is available for sale in shops, and sex tourists can legally be prosecuted under recent legislation. Perhaps Ministers should visit New Zealand. They might learn something useful, such as how to introduce legislation.
Some years ago, legislation was introduced which permitted the confiscation of the ill-gotten assets of convicted drug dealers. It was widely welcomed at the time but hardly anything has been heard of it since. Perhaps we could be told how much or, perhaps more appropriately, how little has been confiscated from such people. There has been so little publicity that one suspects that drug dealers are free to continue making fortunes out of their trade in human misery with no real attempt being made to hit them where it hurts.
Apart from handguns perhaps the main cause of violence on our streets and in our society generally is the widespread and free availability of combat-type knives.
You may remember, Madam Deputy Speaker, that about four years ago I brandished a Rambo-type knife with an eight or 10-inch blade with a serrated edge in the Chamber, to make the point that action needed to be taken to deal with the stabbings and slashings that were far too prevalent in Scotland at that time. Something was done and the situation improved for a time, but it is deteriorating again.
I can understand any Government's difficulties in dealing with certain types of knife and introducing legislation dealing with domestic knives, knives used for catering and butchery and knives that anglers are allowed to use. I cannot understand, however, or accept the Government's attitude towards combat weapons. Legally, they can be bought by anyone over the age of 16, either via mail order or over the counter in shops. What serious checks are made? Next to none. The knife that I produced in the House had been bought by a 15-year-old, and no questions were asked.
This week, the Scottish Daily Record--which I congratulate on its campaign against weapons over a long period--sent a reporter to a shop in Glasgow, where he bought four Rambo-type knives, some of which had blades 15 inches long. He was able to do so with no difficulty: he could just walk in from the street and buy four killer knives. Such knives serve no useful purpose in society--they are purely for killing and maiming--but the merchants of menace who profit from the sale of weapons of that kind will stop doing so only when it is made illegal.
I see no valid reason why we cannot ban the sale of combat weapons either by mail order or over the counter, not only in the back streets but in the main streets. So many are in circulation that it is surely in the best interests of society to make it illegal to sell them, and to stop their circulation. The sooner the House legislates, the better.
As for international matters, I am disappointed that the Queen's Speech made no mention of the need for the United Kingdom Government to take a lead in the ever-increasing international campaign to secure a worldwide ban on the manufacture, sale, transfer and use of anti-personnel land mines. Only last month, at the Inter-Parliamentary Union conference--attended by approximately 120 nations--the hon. Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston (Dame J. Knight), the well-respected chairman of the IPU British group, the right hon. Member for Honiton (Sir P. Emery) and I all spoke in favour of such a ban. The United Kingdom delegation of Back-Bench Members of Parliament was at the forefront of recent attempts to persuade the IPU to adopt such a resolution. Previous attempts had all failed, but last month we succeeded to such an extent that the draft resolution was carried without a vote.
When we consider that it is estimated that more than 100 million land mines are scattered in 62 countries throughout the world, and that approximately 2,500 innocent men, women and children are victims every month--nearly 100 each day--or, to put it another way, that every 15 minutes a human being is being blown up by an anti-personnel mine, we realise that, in the name of humanity, the situation cannot be allowed to continue and must be ended as soon as possible.
I will not go into graphic detail about the horrific injuries--apart from death--that those barbaric weapons inflict on the human body; but I earnestly appeal to the
Government to support the IPU conference decision, and to do all in their power to achieve its aims. They can set an example by imposing a ban on the manufacture and sale of such weapons in this country now, rather than waiting until thousands more people are maimed or killed.
The Government intend to continue their overseas aid programme for the poorest countries, but here again their record could and should be much better. Despite all our problems at home, we must recognise the need to tackle poverty, disease and famine in the world's poorest nations. I understand that the Government are in favour of a mid-week lottery. I do not personally favour that, although I am not against one lottery week. Two lotteries will encourage people to spend more than they can afford, and will lead to an increase in social and family problems. If there is to be a second lottery, however, and if income continues to grow, perhaps consideration could be given to making occasional contributions to certain charities for worthwhile overseas projects of a humanitarian nature.
It seems to have escaped the notice of many--especially members of the Government--that 1996 is the United Nations Year for the Eradication of Poverty, and that last Thursday, 17 October, was the international day commemorating the event. Little or no heed has been paid to that. Indeed, far from poverty being eradicated, the problem has become more acute, both at home and abroad.
In my Adjournment debate at the end of the Scottish Grand Committee meeting in Dumfries on 5 July, which the Prime Minister attended, I dealt with the subject in some detail, especially in regard to Scotland and to Glasgow in particular. Sadly, the position is still no better. The Glasgow travel-to-work area has 55,000 people unemployed; the figure has remained fairly constant, at around 60,000, for several years. The majority of those people are long-term unemployed, and that is one of the main causes of poverty.
Giving people proper jobs provides the best pathway out of poverty. That is why we need to introduce a national minimum wage, and to sign the social chapter. I honestly believe that that will do more to take people out of the poverty trap than anything since the £6 pay policy initiated by Jack Jones when he was general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union in the mid-1970s, and introduced by the last Labour Government. We need something that will lift people out of poverty in our towns and cities.
As we are in the run-up to the general election, I hoped to see in the Gracious Speech a glimmer of hope and some compassion for the disadvantaged and less fortunate in our country; but no, there was nothing to give hope to our old-age pensioners, many of whom cannot live and die in decency and dignity. There was nothing to give hope to the sick, poor or unemployed, nothing about restoring benefits to 16 and 17-year-old people who cannot find employment, and nothing that would do anything to alleviate the poverty that so many people must endure. In fact, it is rather the reverse; the policies outlined in the Speech will worsen the position.
My present constituency is a very mixed one in the east end of Glasgow. It has some quite prosperous areas with few problems, but it also contains some areas with unacceptably high levels of unemployment and
deprivation. As a result of parliamentary boundary changes, however, it will be greatly altered after the general election. I shall lose 50 per cent. of my existing seat--the outer areas, which will merge with most of what was the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, Provan (Mr. Wray) to make a new seat called Baillieston. I wish my hon. Friend well in his new constituency.
The 50 per cent. that I shall retain consists of the inner-city areas of the east end of Glasgow--Shettleston, Tollcross, Parkhead, Dalmarnock and part of Bridgeton. The areas that I shall gain include the rest of Bridgeton, Calton in the east end--including the famous Glasgow "Barras"--and, across the River Clyde, the south-side areas of Gorbals, Govanhill, Hutchesontown and Oatlands, all of which are currently in the central constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, Central (Mr. Watson). Sadly, his constituency has disappeared. I hope that he will eventually find another to represent: he deserves to do so.
The present Shettleston constituency has 13 blocks of multi-storey flats. The new constituency will have 25 such blocks--certainly the highest number in a Scottish constituency, perhaps even in the United Kingdom. It will also have a large number of pensioners, people who cannot find employment no matter how hard they try because no jobs are available for them, and houses that desperately need to be treated for dampness and other defects--defects that Glasgow city council cannot tackle because of Government cuts in its finances. It is difficult to obtain up-to-date and accurate statistics relating to the new constituencies; perhaps Ministers will look into that, and see what can be found out about the composition of new constituencies, especially where there are substantial boundary changes.
My constituency also contains many hundreds of acres of derelict land which desperately needs to be cleaned up and built on to provide jobs for construction workers--thousands of whom are unemployed--and to provide decent homes for people and infrastructure for industry and commerce. That in turn will create more jobs, benefiting the city's economy and linking the east end with the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, Rutherglen (Mr. McAvoy). Between us we have more than 1,000 acres of derelict land in our constituencies, which could be put to good use in creating employment and prosperity for the city.
Glasgow faces tremendous economic problems, which have been made worse by the underfunding of the recent local government reorganisation. The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities estimates a shortfall of£205 million, much of which has impacted on Glasgow, and despite the best efforts of the city council, the Glasgow Development Agency, Scottish Homes and the Greater Glasgow health board, the city cannot hope to solve its problems without additional help from central Government. Such support would benefit the whole of Scotland.
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