House of Commons Hansard Debates for 10 Jul 1997 (pt 21)

7.1 pm

Mr. Jim Cunningham (Coventry, South): I congratulate the hon. Members who made their maiden speeches tonight. I have no doubt that we shall hear much from them in coming years.

I was astounded to hear the cries, pleas and wails of the Opposition, particularly in relation to some of the things that they accused us of. Among their throw-away lines was the suggestion that Labour Governments are soft on inflation. That makes me think back to the hyper-inflation of the Heath Government. We certainly remember the hyper-inflation of the Thatcher Government and Geoffrey Howe's raid on the bankers. When the Tories fuss about the windfall tax, we can always take them back to his day, when the precedent was set.

The Tories complained about a £300 million cut in local government. They said that they got that figure from the Local Government Association. They do not talk about the hundreds of millions of pounds that the previous Government cut over the past 10 or 12 years. The Tories are quick to talk about something that is currently speculative. I find it amazing how they can turn things on their heads and blame everyone but themselves. They have not come to terms with the fact that the rhetoric that they have used for the past 18 years has not worked with the electorate or the economy. They have not grasped that yet.

I listened intently to the hon. Member for Grantham and Stamford (Mr. Davies). I kept wondering why the Tories had not made him Chancellor of the Exchequer, which might have saved them a few seats at the general election. We come back to the fact that it is all rhetoric, innuendo and smokescreen. I have listened closely to the debate and the Tories have never come to the real issues of the Budget. As a first step, the Budget seeks to tackle the long-term weakness of the British economy. From successive Governments, particularly Tory Governments, we have had short-termism. Many hon. Members will have come across that issue while fighting the general election.

I was amazed that the Tories raised the issue of mortgage interest relief at source, which is the help that families get to pay their mortgages. It was the Tories who started to cut it. We can go further. They talk about benefits and helping communities, but it was their Government who stopped people who were made redundant getting 12 months' average earnings.

The Budget is about encouraging investment and dealing with poverty, especially among the young unemployed. Tory Members complain about the so-called subsidy to industry to provide quality training, but what about the terrible cost of those young people who were left on the dole under the previous Administration? What about the havoc wreaked in the inner cities, particularly in places such as Coventry, which I represent? What about the level of crime caused by the fact that young people felt disfranchised and could not get jobs? The scheme for young people the Government propose is an investment well worth making. As the economy grows, there will be a need--certainly in the building sector--for apprentices and skilled young people. The Budget is a step in the right direction.

Another objective of the Budget is fairness. Consider how previous Tory Governments treated old-age pensioners. They broke the link between pensions and

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earnings. They introduced and increased VAT on fuel. We had to stop them, and make them reduce it. The Budget addresses environmental issues that concern people worldwide. Those issues must be tackled. For the first time, we have a Government who are prepared to address them. I do not want go on much longer. Many of my hon. Friends have covered the points that I should have liked to make. I support the Budget and I am sure that many of my hon. Friends will speak further in support of it.

7.6 pm

Mr. Owen Paterson (North Shropshire): I congratulate the three Labour Members on their excellent maiden speeches. The hon. Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Mr. Beard) was most generous about his Conservative predecessors and talked interestingly about his constituency.

I was equally impressed by the maiden speech of the hon. Member for Upminster (Mr. Darvill), who replaced Sir Nicholas Bonsor. Sir Nicholas represented my parents for a time in Cheshire. The hon. Gentleman's kind comments matched the character of Sir Nicholas, who was a good man and a good Member of Parliament. The hon. Gentleman spoke fluently and coolly about his constituency, and I was impressed by his comments on the Bill.

The hon. Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale (Miss Smith) gave such a delightful character to her constituency that I am almost tempted to change my holiday plans. She spoke nicely and kindly about Sir Mark Lennox-Boyd, whom I met only once, outside Aintree race course after we had been expelled because of the IRA bomb. She spoke with feeling and interestingly about the problems of her constituency. I wish all three hon. Members well in this Parliament. I am sure that they will make interesting contributions, but that they will not be surprised if I disagree with them.

It is with real humility that I stand to make my maiden speech after such fine performances. I am deeply grateful to those who voted for me and sent me here. I am very conscious that Shropshire has been sending Members of Parliament to London since June 1264, when four knights whose names have been lost went to London. They were deemed "unfit" by Peter de Montfort, most probably because they sided with the King, not the barons' party. Ever since, there has been a tradition in North Shropshire and Oswestry of sending robust, independent-minded Members to Parliament, none more so than my predecessor John Biffen, who was a most splendid parliamentarian. He is enormously popular throughout the constituency. It is an honour to have known him since 1987, when I helped in the election with him.

John Biffen helped to reforge Conservative thinking in the late 1970s. He played a crucial role as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the early Thatcher Government, helping to forge the first Budgets. As Secretary of State for Trade and later as Leader of the House, he earned extraordinary respect on both sides of the House and from the gentlemen of the press--the fourth estate. He is truly a hard act to follow.

I am sorry to report that John Biffen recently became seriously ill shortly after he was elevated to the peerage as Lord Biffen of Tanat. I am sure that you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and everyone in the House will wish him a speedy recovery. There is one physical link between us.

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He left me his fridge. Despite the best efforts of the Serjeant at Arms and his excellent team, the fridge has not been found. I am sure that if you could help in the search, Mr. Deputy Speaker, you might help me find the secret which enabled John to speak with such prescient wisdom without being pompous and always with a wonderful wry sense of humour without being flippant.

As far as I know, my family have produced no previous Members of Parliament, but my wife's family have produced eight successive generations. Some of them, one has to say, are questionable. One in the 1770s was caught in the act of adultery with his doctor's wife and refused to resign. Another was reputed to be quite the worst Home Secretary in the 19th century and a third sadly died after eating a kipper in too much of a hurry on the way to an election meeting.

Every now and then a family throws up a real star, and Nicholas Ridley was a most brilliant man. He had wide interests outside the House. He was a most talented water colour artist, a stonemason, an architect and a fine fly fisherman and shot. Yet he also had political beliefs of the deepest conviction to which he stuck through thick and thin and which, I am glad to say, he put into effect in a most effective manner in the late 1980s as a Cabinet Minister. Nicholas Ridley was a profoundly politically incorrect person. He ate, drank and smoked things of which many people would disapprove until the day he died.

I was born in Whitchurch in my constituency, and I consider it an enormous privilege to represent the place where I have lived most of my life. I see a large number of historical figures as an example to me. I come here to represent North Shropshire and also to defend the United Kingdom. I see that a major role is to defend the powers invested in the House. One historical figure was Caractacus, who boldly stood up to the harmonising and centralising power of Rome. Another was King Offa who, confronted with his West Lothian problem, built an enormous dyke--as a warning to Welsh Members--to the lasting detriment of the Welsh economy.

I feel that it is our role as politicians to guard the precarious balance of power between conflicting interests and to ensure the peace. The last time that the peace broke down irrevocably was in the civil war, when north Shropshire was badly divided. Oswestry was burnt to the ground by Cromwell. This morning, I went to probably the largest public meeting since the civil war. Well over 100,000 people came together to defend country sports, which generate £3.8 million.

The Labour party won a great victory on 1 May. It has an overwhelming parliamentary majority, but it should be humble and remember that it received a minority of the public vote. The Labour Government have the power to do almost anything that they want, but they should not use that power to impose their ideals on large minorities in distant parts of the country. I quote the words of Catherine the Great, who was invested with total power. She was an autocrat by divine right. She wrote to Voltaire, saying, "You are so lucky, dear Voltaire. You write your ideas on paper whereas I, poor Empress, write upon human skin, which is much more ticklish."