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Mr. Amess: That is an interesting explanation; obviously we will rearrange our business in the House in future. I believe that the general public would draw the conclusion--
Mrs. Dunwoody: I am astonished that the hon. Gentleman, having made a slight clown of himself
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yesterday, should choose to keep bringing the matter up. As it suits him to do so, however, let me explain, because he obviously does not understand. Yesterday he announced a date on which he believes that his Bill will be considered. If there is a debate, the House will have no trouble in considering what he proposes and voting then. This is a serious matter, and if the Bill were anything other than an extraordinarily self-seeking bit of publicity, the hon. Gentleman would be aware of that and would behave sensibly.
Mr. Amess: I do not need lessons from the hon. Lady. To suggest that many well-intentioned people throughout the country who supported the Bill yesterday thought that it was a clown is deeply distasteful. The hon. Lady knows that it was gutlessness on the part of several individuals who did not want the recorded vote, and that is a disgrace.
Dr. Robert Spink (Castle Point): Does my hon. Friend believe that the true explanation is as follows? Yesterday we were discussing one of the most important questions that could come before the House--not an issue to be taken lightly, as Opposition Members said earlier. It concerns the value, the sanctity, the dignity of human life, and I am ashamed that Opposition Members should speak as they have. Is it not a fact that the Opposition did not appoint Tellers, did not want to vote yesterday, because they were, rightly, ashamed of what they were doing?
Mr. Deputy Speaker: Order. I must inform the House that I was in the Chair on that occasion yesterday, and I ruled on the points of order then. Nothing has changed between then and now.
Mr. Amess: The first matter I want to raise is about a constituent in prison. No doubt we all have constituents in prison, and never before, in the years that I have been in the House, have I raised a specific matter concerning a constituent in prison. I have spent an enormous amount of time, however, on that constituent's circumstances; the wife visits my surgery every week, as does my constituent's brother, who is a constituent of the hon. Member for Newham, South (Mr. Spearing). I shall raise one or two points about that gentleman's circumstances.
Just this morning I received a letter from my constituent's brother in the following terms:
Next I want to consider a trip that my hon. Friend the Member for Castle Point (Dr. Spink) and I made to Brussels a few weeks ago to visit the Commissioner responsible for structural funds and the Fisheries Commissioner. We took with us a local fisherman and a local business person, and we had a very successful meeting. I had never met Commissioner Bonino before; contrary to what I expected, my meeting with her was a complete delight. We raised four points with her. She listened carefully to them all and responded positively.
By contrast, the behaviour of the local Labour Member of the European Parliament was quite extraordinary. He has had every opportunity to help local fishermen. When he learned from the newspapers of our trip, he wrote to us giving us "permission" to visit Brussels. It really is going a bit far to suggest that my hon. Friend the Member for Castle Point and I needed this man's permission to visit Brussels. He also said that he would be happy to join us, but my hon. Friend and I were not happy to have the MEP along with us for our deliberations.
Commissioner Bonino told us that, during the two years this man has been a Member of the European Parliament, he has had every opportunity to meet her; she would be happy to meet him, she said, any time, any place--yet he has never chosen to arrange such a meeting. By asking to join my hon. Friend and me, he was clearly trying to get some free publicity. I leave the House to judge his actions.
The hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mrs. Dunwoody) said that she was disappointed with announcements by Ministers. I, on the other hand, received this morning a letter from the Minister responsible for our fisheries who has been to visit our part of Essex. He is trying to do everything he can to secure extra funding for dredging the Thames estuary and to help the cockles industry.
My last point relates to local government in Essex, where controversy reigns between the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties. Indeed, they have had a great falling out. I understand that my right hon. Friend may refer to the issue later this morning. A Liberal county councillor in Brentwood is so fed up with all the arguing that he has joined the Conservative party.
Yesterday my hon. Friend the Member for Chelmsford (Mr. Burns) received a letter enclosing a Christmas card that one of his constituents had received from Basildon district council building control. That constituent has apparently only ever dealt with the council once--over a building application two years ago. The House will already know that Basildon district council has spent huge sums of money over the years on frivolous activities such as sending people Valentine cards. It would appear that the nonsense continues.
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It has been widely reported that a well known former sporting personality who used to be active on the left wing of the Labour party has now joined the Liberal party. Last week the Liberal party organised a press conference to celebrate the fact. But the falling out between Labour and Liberal parties has meant that this new Liberal candidate has felt compelled to write to the local press. It is said, he argues, that in Basildon
The Liberals in Essex have made a complete farce of local transport by sending buses down Hobleythick lane; traffic movements on the Marine estate and the local fire station have also been badly handled. It is no good for the Liberals immediately to have a knee-jerk reaction about a local controversy, to jump on the bandwagon and then go completely quiet when their initial reaction is found to be wanting. In Hobleythick lane, a number of residents protested, but now we find that a number of residents want the buses. Initially there were proposals to change traffic movements--
Mr. Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow):
On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Is there any way in which you can protect the floor of the House of Commons from this trivia?
"Mr. X has been wrongly convicted by the use of fabricated evidence. This was 'observation logs' supposedly contemporaneously written by the police and since been shown to be provably false".
The complaints investigation bureau, he says, was granted a dispensation allowing it not to conduct further inquiries because of a 12-month time limitation statute--this despite the seriousness of the allegations, which were that the police had fabricated evidence and had lied on oath.
actions. The Post Office Security and Investigation Services were involved in the case to safeguard the interests of the Post Office and to assist if necessary with any specialist or commercially confidential information. Inquiries have been made at Sir Michael's request; however it transpires that the Post Office does not possess a transcript of the trial in this case. In the circumstances I am afraid that I cannot assist you with regard to any instructions that the trial judge may have had in relation to rewards."
As I have said, my constituents are greatly worried. I have a responsibility to my constituent who is in prison, and I intend to carry the case forward. If my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House can do anything to help me, I will greatly appreciate that.
"I failed to win an injunction to overturn the party's women-only shortlist. This is untrue. I did invoke an injunction on the Basildon Constituency Labour Party alleging irregularities in the formation of the new CLP. Delegates had not been re-elected in accordance with Labour Party rules, and therefore meetings of the general committee were invalid. The parties to these proceedings were able to reach a settlement of all matters which arose from party procedures adopted following boundary changes in Essex. No admission of liability was made. The matter has now become academic since the 1995 annual meeting of the branches and of the CLP to which new delegates have been appointed. Both sides recognise the futility of further litigating what is a moot point. Financial aspects of the proceedings have been settled to the satisfaction of the parties.
The Conservative party is often attacked for its internal difficulties, but our differences over Europe, honest and straightforward as they are, bear no relation to the local difficulties in Essex between the Labour and Liberal parties. It all goes to show what broad churches those parties in Essex are.
It was also claimed by Labour Party central office that I was still a fully paid up member of the party. This is also untrue. I left the Labour Party at the beginning of the year. However, this did not deter central office from expelling me from a party I did not belong to."
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