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5.13 pm
Mr. Gerald Kaufman (Manchester, Gorton): I hesitate to criticise the Chancellor, partly because he is one of the few recognisable paid-up grown-ups in a Government of adolescent amateurs and also because he made some nice remarks about my book, "How to be a Minister", which will be printed on the jacket of the new edition which is to be published in February. It therefore affects me a little to make some remarks that are not entirely complimentary about him, although he is welcome to quote what I say on the back of any book that he publishes.
To a large extent the Chancellor has been speaking about the past, and when he has looked to the future it was only in the short term. He has made an assumption, which for the purposes of his barnstorming speech he had every right to make, about a Conservative victory at the election and he spoke about the first 18 months or two years. The Chancellor's policies and the Gracious Speech are so lacking in substance because they do not deal with the economic and industrial future of our country beyond the next two or three years--beyond the next Parliament and into the next century.
The Chancellor believes in Europe and believes, by his party's standards, that he is pursuing reasonably sensible economic policies, but he should have looked towards establishing an industrial substructure that will enable Britain, regardless of which party is in power, to sustain growth and prosperity without inflation. At the end of his speech, the Chancellor spoke of his wish to overtake our competitors, but his words rang particularly hollow. Neither in his speech nor in the Gracious Speech was there any planning for the future long-term security and prosperity of this country. That is a Government obligation, regardless of party.
The Chancellor spoke about the real economy, and that is what we ought to be discussing because it is what matters to the people. It certainly matters to my constituents, huge numbers of whom live in deep poverty, and it ought to matter to the electorate as a whole regardless of their economic circumstances.
I strongly support the Opposition amendment because it refers to investment that will increase high technology. It is on such technology that our future and that of any developed industrial country must depend. It is depressing that the Chancellor, who is among the least foolish members of his party and Government, is not looking at the way in which technology is advancing in other countries; in this country it is not advancing sufficiently or being planned for by either the right hon. and learned Gentleman or his colleagues. I am speaking about progress in advancing Britain's future through the information super-highway.
Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of jobs are at stake because, as traditional heavy manufacturing declines, these other industries are taking over. There are billions of pounds' worth of exports on which interest rates and the exchange rate depend and on which the Chancellor's championship, which I share, of keeping the options on economic and monetary union and the single currency open also depend. Investment in high technology and plans to promote it are preferable to the Government's policy of turning the United Kingdom into the low-paid sweatshop of the European Union, for that is what we are becoming. I am sure that the right hon. and learned Gentleman does not like that, but he is doing nothing to stop it.
Dr. Keith Hampson (Leeds, North-West):
Some simple statistics seem to be relevant. As the right hon. Gentleman knows, the Select Committee on Trade and Industry has been considering the cable industry. There has been unprecedented investment. Billions of pounds of investment are coming into Britain from American companies which see a future here. Also, we are spending a higher proportion of gross domestic product on primary, secondary and higher education than France, Germany or Japan. How does he reconcile that dramatic turnaround from what was happening under the Labour Government?
Mr. Kaufman:
One of the problems with these debates and, frankly, one of the reasons why I am fastidious not only about taking part in them, but even about attending them, is the stale sort of exchange about what was happening in the 1970s under the Labour Government. We are talking now about the 21st century and I do not
Developments are taking place as technology advances. Unless there is a specific guiding of policy by Government--I am not talking about public ownership or even state interventionism of the George Brown kind 30 years ago--the developments to which the hon. Member for Leeds, North-West (Dr. Hampson) has referred will be in the hands of foreign, mainly north American, companies and a huge opportunity will be lost to Britain for ever.
As we debate this year's Queen's Speech, the technology of television is advancing. There is now a seamless link between television, computers, newspapers and telephones. On Friday, BSkyB, an enormously profitable and successful company, will make a decision on the technology accompanying digital television that will decide the future of all digital broadcasting in Britain. Yet the Government are either taking no action or holding back progress which affects the nation's prosperity.
In the past few days, Cable and Wireless Communications has been formed from the Cable and Wireless company and a collection of cable companies that are subsidiaries of United States conglomerates. We now have a £5 billion conglomerate and there is no guarantee that through that company, which will be a major competitor, British-produced material--what we are good at and what can create more jobs--will get a fair chance on Britain's cables.
Despite the commitment in the Queen's Speech to what the Government call getting rid of unnecessary burdens on industry, it is clear that the wholly British telephone company BT will face even stronger unfair competition. Instead of doing something about that and removing the restraints, the Government are deliberately maintaining them so that BT is hampered from competing with vastly wealthy American and Canadian conglomerates.
Cable and Wireless Communications, in which both United States and Canadian telephone companies will be represented, will be able to undercut BT on telephone provision while having a monopoly on cable broadcasting. The Government believe in markets and competition, but because of their foolish decision BT is excluded from broadcasting to two or more homes simultaneously. American telephone companies, however--the companies that have come into Cable and Wireless Communications, including Nynex and Bell Canada, are all American--are able in Britain both to offer telephone services and to broadcast images. BT, however, is hampered from competing in the telephone sector by the fact that it is forbidden by law to broadcast to two or more homes simultaneously.
BT is discussing with BSkyB forming a partnership to supply programmes down BT telephone lines. If that comes about, as it may do--both sides would be sensible
to do so--it will be one of the most powerful partnerships in the world. The News Corporation Ltd. is an incredibly powerful organisation and BT is hugely powerful, wealthy and profitable. BSkyB would also supply programmes for the cable services of Cable and Wireless Communications, so BSkyB would be in a dominant position in supplying television programmes through its satellite programmes, through cable and through whatever arrangement it is able to make with BT.
Where at that point would the British Broadcasting Corporation, Britain's most famous brand name, be internationally? Where would it be in its own country, let alone competing throughout the world, as it should be, with its talent, skills and huge library? It would be a postulant client to BSkyB and to Cable and Wireless Communications. It would be hoping to sell them its programmes, without any commitment on the part of the broadcasters based on the binding arrangements of a partnership.
As for the digital technology on which the BBC places so much reliance, even if Friday's decision by BSkyB generously allows one box to have both terrestrial and satellite digital broadcasting, the BBC will be living on borrowed time because terrestrial digital television is obsolescent. It is dying away, just as terrestrial television is dying. The future is in cable, in optical fibres and in interactive and on-demand services, in addition to services that are supplied free to air. The whole ethos of public service broadcasting is at stake, together with the future of the BBC as a production organisation. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are involved, as are the many more jobs that could be created as the channels multiply next year.
It is ludicrous that we should be facing this huge challenge from the American and Canadian companies in Cable and Wireless Communications and from BSkyB with the BBC looking totally to the past and appearing to believe that it can create a fruitful future for British communications on the basis of an impertinent and unrealistic demand for an above-inflation increase in the licence fee, which in any event would not supply much money. In addition to the BBC's ridiculous demand for an increase in the licence fee, the best that it can do is to find candle ends from internal savings and hope to receive money from the private finance initiative to fund what I repeat is in any case an obsolescent technology.
The BBC has formed links with Flextech in the UK and with Discovery in the United States, which are American subsidiaries. I acknowledge that that is better than nothing, but those deals are paltry compared with the formidable competition that the BBC faces from BSkyB and cable television. The BBC announced yesterday that its planned Flextech channels will create, as a rival to MTV, a television version of Radio 1, but that can scarcely be regarded as the cutting edge of public service broadcasting.
The BBC is an enormous asset to this country, not simply in prestige but in generating employment. Unless it can form a partnership with a major broadcaster, I believe that its days are numbered. The BBC will dwindle into a British version of the American Public Broadcasting Service, and its precious heritage will waste away with a diminishing audience--which will continue to diminish exponentially. A hugely profitable, productive and industrial future--we are talking perhaps about the most important industry that we possess--will be frittered away.
I am glad to say that the Labour party has a constructive policy for the Internet. Last year, my right hon. Friend the Member for Sedgefield (Mr. Blair) announced one instalment of the policy at the Labour party conference, and he announced another instalment at our party conference at the beginning of this month. But we cannot afford to wait even the six months before a general election. I have spoken to the Prime Minister's office and to successive Secretaries of State for National Heritage about the fact that this is a national issue and not a party issue, and that we should be doing something about it now. We cannot afford to wait six months until, as I am perfectly confident, a Labour Government are elected.
The BBC must be told by the Government to enter into talks with BT, with Cable and Wireless Communications or with both those giants to discover whether, even at this late stage, it can be included in a partnership.
I shall state very clearly that I believe that the current administration of the BBC--Bland and Birt, who have shown themselves to be far from adequately fitted for their vital responsibilities--should be cleared out and replaced by business-minded people who will do the job that must be done and which is currently not being done. When Sir Christopher Bland was appointed chairman of the BBC I said to myself, "That is ideal--a Tory with a background in commercial television; he is the man to take the BBC into the future." In fact, he has gone native so fast that he makes his predecessor seem like a dynamic socialist.
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