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  • Jim Sillars – 1978 Speech on the Doon Valley

    Below is the text of the speech made by Jim Sillars, the then Labour MP for South Ayrshire, in the House of Commons on 9 March 1978.

    The people of Doon Valley are very grateful that this subject should have been selected for debate this evening. For them the development status of the area with implications for future levels of employment, is a matter of supreme importance.

    The constituency of South Ayrshire covers 700 square miles, and has a number of communities in different areas, all of which fact: considerable problems over employment. We already have two special development areas—one of long standing covering the Girvan district in the south, and one in the north at Cum-nock, the designation of which is of more recent origins, and is relevant to the subpect of the Doon Valley.

    I emphasise that I do not and nor does anyone else in the Doon Valley object to the designation of Cumnock as a special development area. Although Cumnock is not the subject of the debate this evening, unemployment is high there too. There is constant anxiety about future developments and the special development area status is fully justified and should be retained. There is no question of Cumnock versus Doon Valley. My contention is that both areas justify special status, and my complaint is that only one area of need has been recognised.

    It is a tribute to the fair-mindedness of the people of the Cumnock district that they have expressed shock at the exclusion of Doon Valley and that they give full support to its inclusion. There are anxieties and problems in most parts of South Argyleshire, but one could find unanimous agreement that the area with the greatest number of problems, and that which faces, the most acute jobs crisis, is the Doon Valley.

    My purpose is to prove the case that the Doon Valley should be included in the special development status given to Cumnock just under a year ago. To make the case I want to sketch in some of the background and provide details of the character of the problem confronting us now.

    The main villages are Dalmellington, Bellsbank, Patna, Rankinston, and Dalrymple. The total population is about 10,000 in these villages. The coal deposits underlying most of the area gave rise to the rapid development of the Valley, starting around 1840, when the iron masters moved in to exploit the mineral wealth. Exploit them they did, and they exploited the labour, too.

    Ironfounding declined from the turn of the century and by the 1920s it was coal mining that dominated the Valley. It is still coal mining, with only one pit left—Pennyvenie colliery—that dominates employment. One pit, and still no alternative work for men.

    It is not as though this situation that we face is new. There have been six colliery closures since 1952. In 1960, total colliery manpower was 2,034, which, together with associated activities, gave us a male work force of 2,202. By 1970 that had declined to a total work force of 1,056, and we are now down to just around the 500 level. In the past eight years, since I became the Member for the area, the needs of the Doon Valley have been raised several times in similar debates, and the local authorities and interest groups within the area have persistently pressed for action.

    What I have described is a pattern of exploitation which has been the curse of the Doon Valley—namely, all give and no take, and the extraction of wealth with no retention or return of industrial investment to secure the future of the people without whose effort the wealth would never have been produced.

    It has been pointed out to me with some force by Tom White, the district council’s area officer, that the pattern of exploitation continues. The NCB opencast executive is now working on the Beoch area, above Dalmellington and, with an annual output of around 192,000 tons in a highly profitable operation, is taking the last of the coal-based wealth from the valley. Again the valley gives.

    Because of the dominant position of the coal industry in the area, and because coal has been in public ownership for 30 years, the Doon Valley and its people have, in effect, been in public ownership. They are entitled to expect from that situation, to which Socialists strive, better treatment than they have received.

    Had the iron masters remained in control these past 30 years and ripped off the wealth of the area and left it in a state of decline and demoralisation, they would rightly stand condemned. The fact that they were replaced by a publicly-owned industry, with Government assuming public responsibility, in no way lessens the condemnation. Indeed, the degree of condemnation increases because the replacement of private by public control ​ is supposed to avoid what the valley is now going through.

    The position that we now face is grim. The local councils—Strathclyde Regional Council and the district council—have appointed an area co-ordinator. This post for the Doon Valley has been set up on an experimental basis for three years to tackle the worst effects of multiple deprivation.

    This initiative comes after the publication by the district council of a special report on the Doon Valley, which was published in September 1976. That report highlighted the priority category of the valley. I quote from paragraph 3.3:

    “The most recent blow to the employment situation came from the closure of the Minnivey Colliery, which stopped production in November 1975, with the loss of 290 jobs. The only remaining colliery at Pennyvenie has an employment force of 440 but the reserves in this colliery are not expected to last for more than four years at the outside. The number of new jobs required to absorb the labour available from this pit closure alone is evidence of the need for immediate action if the existing communities are to remain viable.”

    Later the report went on to state, in paragraph 7.2:

    “Very briefly, it is clear that the failure to act quickly and attract industry to the Doon Valley will result in a considerable blow to the communities involved. One very possible scenario would include a rapid fall in population due to out-migration, the increase in unemployment rates, the decreased likelihood of entrepreneurs investing in the area, an ageing population, the declining viability of schools, shops and other essential services, the gradual worsening of public transport, etc. Cause and effect may be difficult to establish, but all factors would serve to mutually reinforce each other in an inevitable and vicious downward spiral.”

    That is what is happening now. We are in a downward spiral. With constant fears about the life-span of Pennyvenie, unemployment rising, an absence of any moves on a new industrial base, morale among the people is sagging again.
    I shall show figures to prove that I do not exaggerate. These were presented at a meeting called by the area co-ordinator, held in Patna on 26th January. They are the figures for male unemployment based upon a 17 per cent, sample of the village communities. They are as follows: Rankinston, 29·8 per cent.; Patna, 19·7 per cent.; Dalrymple, 21·6 per cent.; Dalmellington, 33·2 per cent.; Bellsbank, 25·2 per cent.; and the Doon Valley as a whole, 25·2 per cent. If anything happened to the Pennyvenie colliery, the ​ figures would leap upwards, with some areas having male unemployment of between 30 per cent, and 40 per cent.

    I understand that it is not the remit of the Department of Industry to answer for Pennyvenie. I have already sought assurances from the Department of Energy and the National Coal Board about the life of the colliery. Everyone knows that there is limited life there, and that makes it imperative to get new industry in with male jobs.

    Given the levels of unemployment, the pronounced decline in mining, the precarious position of the last pit, the need to demonstrate that the people of the valley are not forgotten and the known views of the district council for special treatment, it came as a stunning blow to be excluded when the Cumnock designation took place.

    Cumnock and Doon Valley district is in two distinct parts. To extend special development area status to one part and exclude the other more depressed area is obvious nonsense. Moreover, it is dangerous nonsense, as it totally undermines the strategy adopted by the regional and district councils. It puts the Doon Valley at a serious disadvantage when everyone states without equivocation that it needs to be advantaged.

    Since that remarkable error of judgment I have been to both the Minister of State, Scottish Office, and the Minister of State, Department of Industry. I have taken local authority deputations to both Ministers. I have written on a number of occasions to the Minister of State Department of Industry. I am told by him in correspondence dated 2nd March that he is

    “still considering the representations about Special Development Area status but I do see considerable difficulties in making any further substantial upgradings at this stage.”

    What no Minister has yet explained, and the people are entitled to know is why the Doon Valley was excluded in the first place. Given the facts of the situation, it was an incredible blunder. That point requires an answer tonight. Did the Department make the necessary inquiries? Did it know the facts, or did it overlook the valley altogether when making its assessment of where to place the designation of special development area status? We are not talking about making “further substantial upgradings” ​ but of correcting an obvious and glaring injustice to a community of just over 10,000 people.

    I hope that when my hon. Friend replies he will not shelter behind the device that the Doon Valley is included in the Ayr employment exchange area, and that this makes it difficult to identify it administratively and thus to give it special development designation. I tell him in advance that to plead administrative problems is not acceptable. Any administrative problems pale into insignificance when compared with the valley’s unemployment rate, its bleak economic condition and the needs of the people.

    My experience is that where there is a political will—the Government’s wages policy is an example—there is an administrative way. What has been lacking so far is the acknowledgement of error in excluding the valley, an acknowledgement that it must be an area of high priority, and the political will on the part of Government to make it such. Without those, it is patently obvious that so-called administrative problems are mere excuses for inaction.
    What surprises many people in the Doon Valley and, indeed, in the Cum-nock area, is that this case should have to be made at all. Everyone else except the Government regards it as self-evident.

    University departments concerned with policies of rehabilitation know about the Doon Valley. Those committees of Strathclyde Regional Council which deals with multiple deprivation and industrial policy, know of the special problems afflicting the Doon Valley. The district council told the Scottish Office in its report in 1976 that it wanted special development area status. The Scottish Development Agency knows how special the problem is. A large number of people walking about the streets in the West of Scotland know of the special nature of the problems in the valley, because of the publicity given to it over a long period. Everyone, it seems, knows except the Government.

    The people that I represent in the valley are feeling sore. When they want to be picked out for special industrial help, they are ignored. When they do not want to be picked out as a possible nuclear waste area, they are picked out. ​ Legitimate requests for industrial action go unheard and equally legitimate objections to nuclear waste projects also fall upon deaf ears. They feel used and abused.

    Understandably, the Government’s reputation in the Doon Valley is not high. Even their most active supporters feel let down. There is an opportunity tonight, with an affirmative to my request for special development area status, for the Minister to restore some of that lost faith.

    Earlier in my remarks I said that South Ayrshire had a number of priority areas. That is true. But the Doon Valley on any and every test is the most urgent. No matter the measurement criterion—be it geographical location, geology, topography, social environmental, economic, industrial—the Doon Valley is an outstanding priority. The people would prefer that this were not the case. They want it to be different. They deserve to have it different. But to achieve the progress that will make it different, we need recognition from the Government. I ask my hon. Friend to start tonight by conceding the case.

  • Shirley Summerskill – 1978 Speech on the Taxi Trade in London

    Below is the text of the speech made by Shirley Summerskill, the then Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office, in the House of Commons on 8 March 1978.

    I welcome the opportunity provided by the hon. Member for Ealing, Acton (Sir G. Young) to discuss this matter and to put the record straight about London taxi fares. I thank him for giving me notice of the questions that he raised.

    On the first one, about the general state of the industry, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State always has in mind the requirements of the general public in London for an efficient taxi service with ready availability of vehicles for hire at reasonable rates. Over the last few years, the rates of increase and the number of taxis in use and of drivers to drive them suggest that the trade is growing and flourishing. The number of taxis in use increases by about 500 to 600 each year—last year by 614. I have the figures for the last seven years. The number of drivers increased by 300 to 400—last year by 322. The number of owner-drivers would also appear to be increasing. All this suggests a faith in the future of the industry.

    London taxis and drivers are licensed by the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Day-to-day licensing control is carried out by the Public Carriage Office of the Metropolitan Police. There are about 12,000 licensed taxis in London and about 16,000 licensed drivers. I should like to pay tribute to the work of the Public Carriage Office, which, with the support of the Metropolitan Police, has the very difficult task of maintaining standards in what is otherwise an unregulated business activity.

    London taxi fares are determined not by the Commissioner of Police but by the Home Secretary. These fares apply to all taxi journeys in London, whatever their length, provided that they begin and end within the Metropolitan Police District. This responsibility has rested with my right hon. Friend for many years. I believe that the original purpose in regulating London taxi fares was to achieve uniformity, but over the years it has been necessary for various factors to be borne in mind in determining the appropriate fare scale.

    We should appreciate that the arrangements under which London taxi drivers operate vary considerably. There are some drivers who own their own taxi. About a third of the drivers are in that position. About two-thirds of the drivers rent their taxis by the day, by the week or by a longer period. Those drivers pay either a fixed daily or weekly rental, or share the daily takings with the owner of the taxi in pre-determined proportions. It is, therefore, a rather complicated and varied situation. Any discussions on the scale of London taxi fares need to take into account the separate interests of the owners of taxis, the interests of drivers and the interests of the travelling public.

    If fares are too low, there is insufficient incentive for the vehicle owners to invest in new taxis. Over a period that could lead to a decline in the number of taxis operating and a worsening of the service to the public. If fares are too high, that may lead to a reduction in the use of taxis by the travelling public, with a consequent falling off in takings by taxi owners and drivers.

    Those were the considerations in mind when increases in London taxi fares were approved in July 1975, and again in December 1976. The application for a further substantial increase in London taxi fares was made in July 1977. The application was for an increase of 10p in the initial hiring charge of 30p and for the time and distance rate of 5p for each 450 yards to be doubled after two miles. Because of the combination of a fixed and a variable increase, the total effect of this claim, if granted, would have varied for different journey lengths. The increase for a short journey of half-a-mile would have teen 33 per cent. while the increase for a journey of four miles would have been 60 per cent. The fare increase on the typical two-and-a-half mile journey would have been 25 per cent.

    In the vast majority of cases taxi drivers’ earnings are directly related to the fares charged, and fare increases of the sort proposed would have led to very large increases in drivers’ earnings. In our view, increases of the magnitude that I have mentioned were quite unjustified, bearing in mind that unless steps were taken to prevent them very large increases would have been obtained by London taxi drivers at a time when other members of the working population were being expected to keep their pay increases in line with the Government’s 10 per cent. guidelines.

    As for the hon. Gentleman’s second question, fares have been substantially increased since the middle of 1975. There was an increase averaging 30 per cent. in July of that year. A further increase of 10p per hiring—that is, 13 per cent.—took place in December 1976. There was a third increase of 10 per cent. in December 1977. These increases represent a total increase of 61·6 per cent. over the early months of 1975. If the effect of inflation and higher taxation is set aside, the taxi driver must be much better off than he was in early 1975.

    I turn to the hon. Gentleman’s third question concerning the man who buys a new taxi and works it for 54 hours a week. I cannot confirm the hon. Gentleman’s statement, but the London taxi trade is an entirely private enterprise operation and every driver has complete freedom to choose when and where to offer his cab for hire and how many hours he shall work each week. Each driver maximises his earnings by using his knowledge and experience of the pattern of business offered and earnings will vary accordingly. The number of vehicles and drivers increases every year, as does the number of drivers who buy their own taxi. This does not appear to indicate that there is a loss on the operation.

    Nevertheless, the case put forward on behalf of the taxi trade was carefully considered at several meetings with my right hon. Friend and me and the point of view of drivers was carefully considered. The Home Secretary had an important meeting on the subject last November and it became clear that it was necessary to look more deeply into the ​ basic cost structure of the industry. It was therefore decided that the Price Commission should undertake such a study.

    It was also decided that this study should be extended to cover the costs and margins of both taxis and private hire cars not only in London but throughout Great Britain. This would provide a broad picture of the cost structure of the taxi and private car industry as a whole.

    As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection announced in December last, the Price Commission is now hard at work on this study and is collecting the required information. I am sure that the representatives of the London taxi trade will put before it all the relevant statistical information.

    I hope that the Commission will be able to indicate what proportion of the metered fare and of extras—for example, for additional passengers and baggage—goes towards the maintenance of the vehicle, and how much is available for the driver personally. It will be important in future discussions on London taxi fares to be able to distinguish between these elements and to ensure that drivers’ earnings are not artificially inflated as a result of increases intended to compensate for rises in vehicle operating costs.

    The hon. Gentleman asked two specific questions about the Price Commission. He asked for an assurance about when the Price Commission would report. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection has directed the Price Commission to examine the prices, costs and margins of the taxi and private hire trades and to report to him not later than 30th June. I have no reason to expect other than that it will report by that date. Obviously any assurance on this score lies with my right hon. Friend.

    On the subject of the recommendation of the Price Commission, I can inform the House that the Secretary of State has already told the taxi trade representatives whom he met in November last that he will carefully examine the results of the examination and will take them fully into account when reaching decisions, but that he cannot enter into any commitments about implementation.

    Sir George Young

    The Home Secretary has given commitments in regard to other inquiries into wage matters which are the responsibility of the Home Office. Why cannot he do the same for taxi drivers?

    Dr. Summerskill

    That is a question for my right hon. Friend. Clearly, he does not wish to commit himself at this stage. I cannot say more than that. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman would like to question my right hon. Friend further on that point.

    On 6th December 1977 my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary made an order increasing London taxi fares with effect from 22nd December last year. This represented an increase of 10 per cent. on metered fares. In the Government’s view, such an increase was the most that could be justified in the circumstances and would enable owners to obtain a reasonable increase to meet rises in operating costs and to provide an increase in drivers’ earnings in line with increases obtained by other members of the working population.

    The Government believe that the continuing fall in the rate of inflation will be of significant benefit to the owners of taxis in London, as well as to the population at large.

    We recognise that sacrifices have had to be made by all sections of the community, including taxi drivers, in the fight against inflation, but it now seems to be generally accepted that this fight has to be won. Individual sections of the community may claim that there are special circumstances affecting their situation. Most sections of the community seem to make that claim at one time or another, but I am sure that in the longer term the London taxi trade will recognise that its claim for increases of up to 60 per cent. in London taxi fares could not properly have been granted.

    Sir George Young

    Would the hon. Lady accept that, halfway through the negotiations, the basic rules were changed? If they had been adhered to as originally set by the Price Code, the tariff increase would have gone through. Can she also confirm that her Department has had, for 10 months, the detailed figures on which I rested my case and which showed the deterioration in the financial position and ​ that she does not accept them? My figures showed that a new cab runs at an annual loss of over £1,000, and she claims that that is a fictitious figure. Will she also answer my second question, which related to the position as from July 1975? She carefully did not answer it as from July 1975 but chose a month earlier in the year, which was not what I argued.

    Dr. Summerskill

    On the hon. Gentleman’s first question, I can only reiterate that the basic reason why a greater price rise was not permitted was the principle of adhering to the Government’s 10 per cent. guidelines. That is the principle to which the Government have adhered all through the talks, and it was not possible to go beyond it.

    The hon. Gentleman’s question about new taxis was hypothetical. It was based on hypothetical figures. I have shown that each taxi driver operates in his own particular way, driving his own number of hours a week, and choosing when and where to offer his cab for hire. Will the hon. Gentleman repeat his third question?

    Sir George Young

    I asked whether the position from July 1975 to now had not deteriorated. The hon. Lady did not answer it because she chose a totally different base month from which to work, namely, January or February 1975. Will the hon. Lady now admit that the current level of tariffs means that a taxi driver working as hard now as in July 1975 is substantially worse off in money terms on vehicle operation, setting aside the ravages which taxes and inflation have made on any take-home pay?

    Dr. Summerskill

    I would still say that it would seem improbable. As I have shown in the figures I have quoted, successive fare rises at intervals over the last few years have brought about substantial increases since the middle of 1975. Over the whole period, even if the effect of inflation and higher taxes is set aside, the taxi driver must surely be better off than in early 1975.

  • George Young – 1978 Speech on the Taxi Trade in London

    Below is the text of the speech made by George Young, the then Conservative MP for Ealing Acton, in the House of Commons on 8 March 1978.

    Most hon. Members are now on their way home—most of them, I suspect, in their own cars, one or two enlightened Members by bicycles. Many hon. Members will be outside at the Members’ Entrance, waiting for taxis to arrive to take them home. If they find that they have to wait a little longer than usual, and if their cab driver is a little less alert and cheerful than they might expect, the reason is that the 16,500 taxi drivers in London have been singled out by the Government for harsher treatment than any other section of the community. They bitterly resent the way in which the Home Office has handled their application for a tariff increase.

    I spent a few nights in Ilford, North a few weeks ago, for obvious reasons. I met many taxi drivers there. The animosity they expressed about this matter was something I shall always remember. I am delighted to see in his place my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford, North (Mr. Bendall), who will represent not only taxi drivers but everyone else in Ilford, North for a long time. I am also pleased to see my hon. Friend the Member for Southgate (Mr. Berry), who has a large number of taxi drivers in his constituency.

    Although the economics of the taxi industry are complicated, the basic case ​ which I wish to put to the House tonight is reasonably simple. It is that the cost increases that the taxi drivers have had to bear over the past two and a half years have been far higher than the tariff increases that the Home Office has allowed. As a result, the fleet proprietors have had to go out of business. The owner-driver is having to work far longer hours even than Members of Parliament and insufficient funds are being set aside for future investment.

    The responsibility for this state of affairs rests entirely on the Home Office. To substantiate my argument I go back to July 1975 when the last major tariff increase took place, based on a claim made in December 1974. Since then the drivers have had a lop interim surcharge, introduced in December 1976.

    It was against that background that a claim was made last July for an increase of 28 per cent. That sounds a lot, but we have to bear in mind that the increase in British Rail fares from January 1975 to January 1977, a roughly comparable period, was 93 per cent., that London Transport but fares went up 126 per cent., in that period and that Underground fares rose 147 per cent. Those organisations have access to capital funds to help them invest and also have access to revenue subsidies. Both of these advantages are denied to taxi drivers.

    Put in the context of the costs of other transport organisations the drivers’ claim was a modest one, reflecting the fact that, for example, a taxi cab that cost £2,900 in 1975 cost £4,500 in 1977. The cost of fuel has risen by over 50 per cent. and the cost of all the other related goods and services have gone up likewise. The figure of 28 per cent. was not plucked out of the air. It was substantiated in a detailed memorandum sent to the Home Office on 11th May last year based on a formula for calculating costs and revenues of the average cab used by the 1970 Maxwell Stamp report. Since that claim was put in nearly a year ago, costs have continued to rise.

    The approach of trying to justify a tariff increase on the basis of costs was in line with the Price Code operating at that time. I quote from a letter which the Home Secretary—whom we are delighted ​ to see in the House—wrote to another London Member on 10th May last year:

    “In fixing the appropriate scale of charges for London cabs I, as Home Secretary have to have due regard to the provisions of the Price Code. Under the Code fares may be increased to an extent sufficient to offset the increase in prices which has occurred since the base date for the Code which, in the case of taxis, is taken to be 30th September 1972.”

    London’s taxi drivers accepted that those were the rules, and they were quite happy to play the game by those rules.

    The country had a high rate of inflation and the Government introduced a policy to try to tackle it. Because taxi drivers suffer from inflation like everyone else, they supported the initiative and wished to stay within the limits allowed by the Price Code.

    Now we come to the skulduggery, which is what has deeply upset the trade. Halfway through the game, when the taxi drivers felt that they were winning the argument, the Government changed the rules. This is set out in a letter dated 14th February from the Under-Secretary herself:

    “However, at the end of our deliberations, the Government had had to conclude that under current counter-inflation policy it would no longer be appropriate to allow a straight passing-through of cost increases into price rises. As you will recall, earlier stages of the counter-inflation policy placed emphasis on allowable cost increases. Under the current stage less emphasis is placed upon cost increases and more on profit margins, return on capital, and the factors affecting these, such as the efficiency of the enterprise and the use of resources.”

    That is a totally different game with a totally different timescale and totally different rules set up not by the Maxwell Stamp Committee but by the Price Commission.

    The matter was referred to the Price Commission on 12th December last year, according to a parliamentary reply on that date:

    “Following consultation with the Price Commission and the Director General of Fair Trading I have today directed the Price Commission to examine and report to me on prices, costs and margins in the provision of cab services. The examination will cover all of Great Britain, and will include both hackney carriages, such as London taxis, and certain other private hire vehicle services, as laid down in the terms of direction.”—[Official Report, 12th December 1977; Vol. 941, c. 15.]

    We learn from the Minister’s letter of 14th February that the Commission had been directed to report by 30th June.
    ​

    By that time events had infuriated the taxi drivers and the matter had been made worse by the Secretary of State and the Price Commission. If the inquiry had been confined to London’s taxi drivers, and if it had started work on 13th December and used the figures of the audited accounts of the taxi fleets and the owner-drivers, which were available, it might have been completed by now. But none of that happened. The questionnaires on which the report is to be based have not even gone out yet. The offers of audited accounts were refused and, three months after the inquiry was announced, very little progress seems to have been made.

    My hon. Friend the Member for Hampstead (Mr. Finsberg) was provoked to wonder in Taxi of 2nd March.

    “whether there was a conspiracy between the Home Office and the Price Commission to drive London taxi drivers so close to bankruptcy that the Labour Party proposals for the municipalisation of London taxis actually looks attractive.”

    The red herring of hire cars outside London has been dragged across the stage, and it is quite irrelevant to the problems facing London’s taxi drivers.

    In the meantime, an increase of 10 per cent. came into being on 22nd December last year based apparently on the 10 per cent. maximum wage guidelines. This is an entirely inappropriate basis on which to treat the taxi drivers’ claim. By all means give the police and the firemen 10 per cent., but they do not have to buy the police cars or the fire engines and run them. To treat this as a wage claim instead of a tariff increase is totally inappropriate.

    I should like to try to set out in simple terms the problems now facing the average cab driver. The average cab driver driving, say, 24,000 miles a year, which is approximately 54 hours a week, and allowing him a 10 per cent. return on his capital and letting him put enough money aside to replace his cab after five years, would in July 1975 have earned £2,730. His total costs in that year would have been £3,171. That left him a deficit of £441 per year. That has two consequences: either inadequate funds are set aside to replace his vehicle, or he has to work excessive hours.

    If the situation was bad in 1975, by January 1978 it was disastrous. The figures for that month were: income ​ £3,430; total expenditure £4,587. It is not surprising that in the meantime firms have gone bankrupt. Since July 1975, five fleet proprietors, operating some 650 vehicles, have stopped trading. I calculate that to break even now a taxi driver would have to work an extra eight hours per week than he worked in 1975. This is before the impact on his take-home pay of higher taxation and inflation.

    The taxi drivers are confident that the current inquiry will vindicate their claim, but they need the increase this summer. If the report is delayed, if the Government do not accept it or refuse to implement it on time and winter comes without another tariff increase, the situation will be desperate. I have had discussions with the Leader of the GLC, Horace Cutler, who obviously has an interest in an efficient taxi service, as it is part of the transport strategy for the capital. In a letter dated 7th March, I was pleased to hear from him:

    “We hold regular meetings with representatives of the trade to ascertain their views and we support them in their efforts to operate economically.”

    Basically, they want equal support from the Government.

    It is against this background of growing financial problems and total exasperation with the Government that I put five specific questions to the Minister, of all of which I have given her notice. The answers may define the area of agreement, clarify the situation and perhaps demonstrate that the Government have some residual sympathy for the taxi trade.

    First, will the Minister confirm that she and her Government believe that the capital city needs a flourishing and efficient taxi industry?

    Secondly, will she admit that the current level of tariffs means that a taxi driver working as hard now as he worked in July 1975 is substantially worse off on his vehicle operation, setting aside the ravages which taxes and inflation may have made on any take-home pay?

    Thirdly, will the hon. Lady confirm that there is now no incentive to become a taxi driver, as a man who buys a new vehicle today, who makes the accepted provisions for depreciation, running costs and so on, will lose over £1,000 a year on his vehicle operation? Fourthly, will she give an assurance that the Price Commission will report on this matter, as ​ requested, by the end of June? Finally, in view of the intolerable delay to date and the impossibility of back-dating any increase, will she accept and implement as speedily as possible the recommendations it contains?

    I forgot to say earlier that there is present my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon, North-East (Mr. Weatherill), who shares the concern of other London Members about this matter.

    Licensed taxi drivers are entitled, if they are entitled to nothing else, to some straight answers to the straight questions that I have put to the Minister.

  • Les Huckfield – 1978 Speech on British Leyland’s Speke Plant

    Below is the text of the speech made by Les Huckfield, the then Labour MP for Nuneaton, in the House of Commons on 7 March 1978.

    I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Garston (Mr. Loyden) for giving me an opportunity to speak on an issue which has understandably raised a great deal of concern. That is because the proposal to close Speke No. 2 assembly plant has some wide-ranging implications for British Leyland and for Merseyside. As my hon. Friend has ​ said, I am sure that on both sides of the House we all wish that the British Leyland management did not need to take difficult decisions of this sort.

    That need is dictated primarily by the state of British Leyland, which, as the chairman of the company, Mr. Michael Edwardes, made clear in his speech to employees on 1st February, is critical. The company has made no secret of the fact that its performance has been unsatisfactory. That is reflected in the fall in British Leyland’s market share from 33 per cent. to less than 25 per cent. last year, and to 21 per cent. in January.

    I am glad to note that provisional indications are that British Leyland’s market share for February has shown some signs of improvement. Nevertheless, one thing is clear: the company needs a period of sustained production accompanied by a major effort to reduce costs so that British Leyland can compete with other European manufacturers both at home and in export markets. This means adjusting capacity and manpower in line with realistic market prospects, taking account of the impossibility of recovering market share overnight and of the fact that British Leyland still has power and manpower levels geared to production on the pre-Ryder scale.

    If the company fails to adjust capacity now and its market share continues to decline, the result will be that many more jobs will be lost than those affected by the closure of Speke 2. The collapse of the company would have unthinkable consequences for employment in this country. Not only is British Leyland dirt country’s seventh largest employer; thousands of wage earners in supplier industries are dependent on the survival of the company. As Michael Edwardes has made clear, without realistic measures to improve production and reduce costs, that survival must be in doubt.

    This is the task facing the management at British Leyland. It is the management which, in consultation with the National Enterprise Board, must decide on the specific measures necessary to restore the company’s fortunes. The Government have accepted the view of the British Leyland Board and the National Enterprise Board that British Leyland’s capacity, including manpower, must be brought into line with market prospects, but the ​ Government cannot set themselves up as an alternative manager of the company, so that means to achieve this must be left for British Leyland management to decide in consultation with the National Enterprise Board.

    As my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister said in the House on 31st January, the Government have full confidence in the new management at British Leyland and are committed to supporting Michael Edwardes in his attempt to improve the company’s performance. A start has been made. As hon Members may know, steps have been taken to restructure the company, and at the meeting at Kenilworth on 1st February Michael Edwardes secured the backing of employees for his proposals. At the same time the British Leyland board has submitted to the National Enterprise Board its corporate plan for 1978 outlining its proposals for a future strategy for the company.

    It would, however, be difficult for the Government to justify both to this House and to the public at large further investment in British Leyland, especially on the scale that British Leyland is likely to need, unless the management can clearly demonstrate that firm steps are being taken to tackle the company’s problems. Those steps may be unpleasant and, in the case of the proposal to close Speke 2, they have been made all the more difficult to take by the fact that the plant is located on Merseyside.

    I fully understand what my hon. Friend said about the situation on Merseyside. It was because of our concern for Merseyside that we designated it a special development area in August 1974. This means that Merseyside gets regional development grants, Government factories, regional selective assistance, removal grants and grants to encourage the movement of offices and other service industries. In fact, Merseyside is among those places which are given the highest priority in the steering of new investment.

    We estimate that Merseyside received about £302 million of regional financial assistance over the five years 1972–73 to 1976–77. The assistance under Section 7 of the Industry Act has safeguarded or created 40,000 jobs since 1972.
    As my hon. Friend realises, we had a report from the NEB on investment ​ potential in the North-East and North-West. That report made recommendations particularly in favour of widening the differential in regional selective financial assistance in favour of special development areas. The Government also increased the maximum rent-free periods on Government factories to five years.

    The role of the NEB has been strengthened following the establishment of an NEB regional board for the North-West. We have commissioned a firm of consultants to identify the types of business most likely to prosper close to the port of Liverpool. The Liverpool partnership area, which Speke immediately adjoins, will benefit from increased resources under the Department of the Environment’s urban programme, and the greater powers to assist industry given to them under the Inner Urban Areas Bill. I could give my hon. Friend more details about my Department’s small firms information centre in Liverpool and about assistance under Section 8 of the Industry Act.

    Under the Hardman decisions on the dispersal of Government work from London, Merseyside probably comes out as one of the best areas. The bulk of the 4,000 dispersals to the North-West, nearly 3,000 posts, will go to Merseyside. The Hardman dispersals will inevitably take some time to carry out, but I am sure that hon. Members will welcome these additional office jobs and appreciate that this shows recognition of the serious problem.

    There are achievements on the plus side. I shall name but a few. Vauxhall has recruited 2,000 workers at Ellesmere Port. The Co-operative Bank will provide 600 new jobs at hard-hit Skelmersdale. Cross International has announced a £2½ million investment programme with 200 jobs to come over four years at Knowsley. YKK is recruiting at Run- ​ corn. Tate & Lyle is investing heavily. Shell Chemicals has planning permission for a £50 million plant at Stanlow.

    These are a few of the projects in Merseyside.

    In co-operation with the Manpower Services Commission, the Government have introduced a wide range of special schemes designed specifically to alleviate increased unemployment. They include the job creation and work experience programmes, the youth employment subsidy, the job release scheme, the temporary employment subsidy and the small firms employment subsidy.

    It is estimated that over 41,000 persons, many of them young people, have been assisted by these measures in Merseyside. The temporary employment subsidy has been of particular benefit—with applications approved in respect of over 16,000 workers in the area.

    It is difficult to satisfy my hon. Friend in a debate such as this. I fully appreciate the statement that he has made on behalf of his constituents. I and the Department understand the problems of Merseyside.

    There are plans for a new 100-place skillcentre to be established in the Wirral and for a smaller 60-place centre for adults and young people in Liverpool itself. Both of these should be in operation by 1980–1981.

    It is, as I have already made clear, for British Leyland management to take the difficult decisions necessary for the company’s survival and, in this particular case, to decide whether to proceed with the closure after.

  • Eddie Loyden – 1978 Speech on British Leyland’s Speke Plant

    Below is the text of the speech made by Eddie Loyden, the then Labour MP for Liverpool Garston, in the House of Commons on 7 March 1978.

    The Adjournment debate tonight ​ is about the proposal to close British Leyland’s No. 2 plant at Speke, and it has to be set against the background of Merseyside’s unemployment, because my view is that the proposal is completely unacceptable on a number of counts.

    The House will be well aware of the unemployment and job opportunities position on Merseyside. It will be readily appreciated that the loss of a further 3,000 jobs represents a serious setback to any hopes of industrial recovery. This not only applies to Merseyside; it extends into the North-West Region. It will have a serious effect on the attempts being made to reduce unemployment in the area, which is at present running at a level of 11·6 per cent. It will also affect job opportunities in an area which is already starved of jobs It will make it even more difficult for young people to find employment and certainly it will create serious problems for the new generation of job seekers going into industry in the near future, it paints a picture of real despair.

    This is happening at a time when both the Department of Employment and the Department of the Environment are attempting to remedy the problems in that part of the world. The inner city or inner area programme of the Department of the Environment and the Department of Employment’s youth opportunities programme are designed to deal with areas like Merseyside, in terms of job creation.

    These policies are directed towards bringing resources to the area in order to improve the social, economic and industrial fabric of hat part of Merseyside. While this is going on on the one hand, the axing of 3,000 jobs—if this proposal is carried—means that much of the work being done by those Departments will come to nought. It makes a nonsense of almost every policy designed for this purpose.

    Merseyside is a special development area. The efforts that have been made by this instrument will be of no avail if jobs in Merseyside are slashed at their present rate. In addition to the Speke closure, we have heard that the Birds Eye factory in Kirkby intends to close, Courtaulds has already declared that 400 with the loss of a further 1,200 jobs. ​ jobs will go from the Aintree plant. The accumulation of these job losses represents a most serious loss for Merseyside.

    One can well imagine the amount of investment that will be needed to create the number of jobs that I have outlined. We all know that it is not simply the jobs that I have mentioned that will be lost. If we apply the multiplier, it means that we are talking of about 10,000 or 12,000 jobs. The sub-contractors at Speke, transport, the small shopkeepers, the community generally, the loss of £750,000 to the rates, will all have a dramatic and serious effect upon industrial recovery and employment opportunities on Merseyside.

    Indeed, it was through the industrial development certificate that British Leyland first went to Merseyside. It seems an absolutely blatant contradiction of Government policy that in view of the way that this industry was brought to Merseyside we should now be talking about the axing of jobs in the car industry to the extent suggested. On another count it also means that the plans of British Leyland have virtually taken a U-turn. Indeed, that is as serious an argument and problem as the one relating to Merseyside jobs.

    What has really happened to the plans of yesteryear and to the Ryder concept of a British-based, British-owned car industry? At the time this House supported the rescue of British Leyland and the Ryder plan which gave hope and opportunity for the development of a British-based, British-owned car industry. My right hon. Friend the Member for Huyton (Sir H. Wilson), the then Prime Minister, said on receiving the Ryder Report:

    “The choice facing the Government on receiving the Ryder Report, the choice now facing the House, is this. Is Britain to have a major indigenous automobile industry, or should we have decided that British Leyland could survive profitably on a diminished scale, selling up-market cars together with trucks and buses? Are we, through a lack of courage in responding to a tremendous and costly challenge, to endanger a million jobs, and at the same time to see a shrinkage of exports, and vastly greater imports for the home market, which would be bound to affect our balance of payments disastrously?

    The Government have decided that Britain must remain in the world league so far as a British-owned automobile industry is concerned.”—[Official Report, 24th April 1975; Vol. 890, c. 1747–8.]

    It would appear that the Government have at least begun part of that U-turn, when one considers closure of the Speke factory and the context of the whole corporate plan.

    There may be differences among us as to how the objectives of the Ryder plan could be achieved, but one thing that we all know is that one way of not achieving it is to close the second most modern plant in the Leyland network. That is what is happening at Speke.

    Some of my hon. Friends and I have met the Leyland management. I for one remain basically dissatisfied with the reasons that it has given for the proposed closure of Speke. The question of the number of sales of the TR7 has remained unanswered. I understand that shop stewards have been unable to elicit information on sales of the TR7 in the United States.

    Also, why were the plans for the closure of Speke not made known at the meeting when Mr Michael Edwardes was presenting the broad lines of the corporate plan to the trade union movement? Why was the closure decision taken when the trade unions had made the strike official, and there was every likelihood of a quick return to work? Why was the decision not discussed in the car council? One of the things that we agreed on was a worker participation scheme for Leyland. Participation means the involvement of workers in their industry. Yet at no time was the question of the closure of Speke discussed in the car council. Nor were there any discussions about the broader implications of the corporate plan.

    Why, also, did the management take so long to decide to adopt the next stage of the procedure in the recent dispute? It was evident that the plant was working under a procedural agreement and that had the next stage been proceeded with the issue could have been settled. Yet there was resistance by the management to take the next steps.

    As a shop steward of 30 years’ experience I know that the procedural agreement forms a very important part of industrial relations. In many cases it is the Bible of industrial relations. Yet here is the management refusing to take the next steps on the procedural agreement, resulting in a prolonged dispute, a further lowering of the morale of workers, ​ and the beginning of the justification for the closure of the plant.

    If the full capacity at Speke was not being reached why was other work not sent there? Obviously, there is work going from Leyland to other parts of Europe. I do not want to argue the case for Liverpool against that for other parts of Europe, or even other parts of the world, but there was an obligation on Leyland to see that additional work that was being done in Belgium was done at factories that were working under capacity. None of these decisions emanated from the workers. They are all part of management’s responsibility. One very much doubts whether the reasons given by management for the closure of Speke are the real ones.

    When the management was asked whether the closure had occurred because of the bad performance of the Speke work force, the company’s representatives said that there was a poor record of performance. But when figures were requested, they were not available. There were merely vague statements that the work force was somehow or other responsible for the situation.

    The management was also asked whether, if Speke had produced every car asked of it, it would still have been closed, and the answer was in the affirmative. Therefore, despite the tirade of abuse from the Press and the Opposition directed against the workers at a factory, it has undoubtedly been market considerations rather than anything else which have led to the present situation. The Leyland management said that Speke had in a sense been self-selected as a plant for closure.

    Many people wonder whether there is not a more sinister motive behind the closure. Let me quote one headline from the Runcorn Guardian.

    “Plant closure manufactured by bosses”.

    The writer claims to have evidence in leaked documents showing top secret sales figures appearing to indicate market resistance to buying the TR7, or “the Bullet” as it is called. The figures show that even after a month’s strike and lost production, when not a single car was produced, there were still 2,263 “Bullets” in the showrooms. The argument is that if production had continued at its normal rate of 12·5 cars per hour on a 17-hour ​ shift, by now the market would be swamped. That situation was not the responsibility of the Speke factory workers.

    Accusations have been made about poor performance and disputes at Speke, but figures issued by the National Enterprise Board in 1976 show that in the last five or six years Speke has been more affected by lay-offs than by disputes. In other words, the situation over the last five or six years has been reasonably peaceful.

    That position is borne out by the National Enterprise Board report. It shows that from October to March 1975 349,000 man-hours were lost through disputes as against 629,610 through lay-offs. In the period to April 1975, 117,366 man-hours were lost through disputes and 500,093 through lay-offs. In the period October 1975 to May 1976, 151,492 man-hours were lost through disputes and 250,380 through lay-offs. The Speke plant, even prior to the recent dispute, had a lay-off of six weeks, which meant that it had been idle for six months.

    On every occasion the media and the Opposition have hit out at the workers. They have made no constructive proposals. As has been evident from Day 1 of the Leyland rescue, they have been opposed to the concept of a British car industry. Many of us believe that the decision to close Speke could lead to further closures and the breaking up of British Leyland. The attacks on Leyland and its work force, especially by the Opposition and sections of the media, will be welcomed by Tokyo, Bonn and other car manufacturing capitals. They do nothing for Leyland workers, except to undermine them and the British car industry. This is at a time when we are talking about the major problem of the penetration of the United Kingdom market by Japanese and other car manufacturers.

    When the car industry came to Merseyside it was hailed as a turning point for the area’s industrial future. Some of my hon. Friends who were members of the city council will recall that when Fords, and then Standard Triumph, came to Liverpool those developments were in accordance with the general policy of the then Government, namely, that regions with areas of declining industry and ​ declining job opportunities should be the places where there should be industrial development.

    I feel that we have reached another turning point for Merseyside. It is a turning point for the northern regions as well as Merseyside. It appears to be one of the arguments used by the Leyland board and the car industry in general that the industry should be located in geographical centres. If that is to be the industry’s policy, the future of the northern regions will be grim.

    I do not believe that the decision will stop at Speke No. 2, and neither do many of my hon. Friends. The decision will be divisive. It will turn worker against worker. I believe that in many ways that is intended. It will turn area against area. That will be done in pursuing a policy of reducing employment in the industry. That is not the policy to be pursued by a Labour Government.

    The House has the responsibility to examine in the closest possible detail all aspects of Leyland’s decisions. Before any decision is made by the Government on the Speke No. 2 plant or on the corporate plan generally, the Government must go through every aspect of the plan with a fine-toothed comb, with a view to meeting two objectives. One objective is to ensure that the social consequences of those decisions are taken fully into account by the Government. The second objective is to see that British Leyland is not starting on the road to break-up and, therefore, missing the opportunities that are presented in fulfilling the objectives of a free-based British car industry.

    I hope that even at this late stage the Minister will be able to say that the Government will do just that and keep in line with the policies and ideologies upon which the Government were elected.

  • Rishi Sunak – 2020 Statement on the Coronavirus

    Rishi Sunak – 2020 Statement on the Coronavirus

    Below is the text of the statement made by Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 20 March 2020.

    Good afternoon.

    The economic intervention that I’m announcing today is unprecedented in the history of the British state.

    Combined with our previous announcements on public services and business support, our planned economic response will be one of the most comprehensive in the world.

    Let me speak directly to people’s concerns.

    I know that people are worried about losing their jobs.

    About not being able to pay the rent or the mortgage.

    About not having enough set by for food and bills.

    I know that some people in the last few days have already lost their jobs.

    To all those at home right now, anxious about the days ahead, I say this: you will not face this alone.

    But getting through this will require a collective national effort, with a role for everyone to play – people, businesses and government.

    It’s on all of us.

    To meet our commitment to that effort, I am today announcing a combination of measures unprecedented for a government of this nation.

    Our Plan for People’s Jobs and Incomes, will: * Protect people’s jobs; * Offer more generous support to those who are without employment; * Strengthen the safety net for those who work for themselves; * And help people who stay in their homes.

    The first part of our plan is to protect people’s jobs.

    This week, the Government has taken unprecedented steps to fight the coronavirus.

    We have closed schools. We have told people to stay at home to prevent the spread of infection. We are now closing restaurants and bars.

    Those steps are necessary to save lives.

    But we don’t do this lightly – we know those measures will have a significant economic impact.

    I have a responsibility to make sure we protect, as far as possible, people’s jobs and incomes.

    Today I can announce that, for the first time in our history, the government is going to step in and help to pay people’s wages.

    We’re setting up a new Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

    Any employer in the country – small or large, charitable or non-profit – will be eligible for the scheme.

    Employers will be able to contact HMRC for a grant to cover most of the wages of people who are not working but are furloughed and kept on payroll, rather than being laid off.

    Government grants will cover 80% of the salary of retained workers up to a total of £2,500 a month – that’s above the median income.

    And, of course, employers can top up salaries further if they choose to.

    That means workers in any part of the UK can retain their job, even if their employer cannot afford to pay them, and be paid at least 80% of their salary.

    The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will cover the cost of wages backdated to March 1st and will be open initially for at least three months – and I will extend the scheme for longer if necessary.

    I am placing no limit on the amount of funding available for the scheme. We will pay grants to support as many jobs as necessary.

    And can I put on record my thanks to the Trades Union Congress, the CBI and other business groups, for our constructive conversations.

    We said we would stand together with the British people – and we meant it.

    We have never had a scheme in our country like this before – and we’re having to build our systems from scratch.

    I can assure you that HMRC are working night and day to get the scheme up and running and we expect the first grants to be paid within weeks – and we’re aiming to get it done before the end of April.

    But I know that many businesses are hurting now.

    I have already taken extraordinary measures to make cash available to businesses, through loans, grants and guarantees.

    I can announce today that the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme will not be interest free, as previously planned, for 6 months – it will now be interest free for twelve months.

    Thanks to the enormous efforts of our critical financial services sector, those loans will now be available starting on Monday.

    And I will announce further measures next week, on top of those the Governor and I have already taken to ensure that larger and medium sized companies can also access the credit they need.

    I’m also announcing today further cash flow support through the tax system.

    To help businesses pay people and keep them in work, I am deferring the next quarter of VAT payments.

    That means no business will pay any from now until the end of June; and you will have until the end of the financial year to repay those bills.

    That is a direct injection of £30bn of cash to employers, equivalent to 1.5% of GDP.

    Let me speak directly to businesses.

    I know its tough out there.

    We in government are doing everything we can to support you.

    We’re paying people’s wages up to 80% so someone can be furloughed rather than laid off to protect their jobs.

    We’re deferring £30bn of taxes until the end of the financial year.

    We’re lending unlimited sums of money interest free for 12 months.

    We’re abolishing business rates altogether this year if you are in hospitality, retail and leisure.

    We’re providing cash grants of £25,000 for small business properties.

    The Government is doing its best to stand behind you – and I am asking you to do your best, to stand behind our workers.

    We’re launching in the coming days a major national advertising campaign to communicate the available support for businesses and people.

    Please look very carefully at that support before making decisions to lay people off.

    It’s on all of us.

    We are starting a great national effort to protect jobs. But the truth is we are already seeing job losses. And there may be more to come.

    I cannot promise you that no one will face hardship in the weeks ahead.

    So we will also act to protect you if the worst happens.

    To strengthen the safety net, I’m increasing today the Universal Credit standard allowance, for the next 12 months, by £1,000 a year.

    For the next twelve months, I’m increasing the Working Tax Credit basic element by the same amount as well.

    Together these measures will benefit over 4 million of our most vulnerable households.

    And I’m strengthening the safety net for self-employed people too, by suspending the minimum income floor for everyone affected by the economic impacts of coronavirus.

    That means every self-employed person can now access, in full, Universal Credit at a rate equivalent to Statutory Sick Pay for employees.

    Taken together, I’m announcing nearly £7bn of extra support through the welfare system to strengthen the safety net and protect people’s incomes.

    And to support the self-employed through the tax system, I’m announcing today that the next self-assessment payments will be deferred until January 2021.

    As well as keeping people in work and supporting those who lose their jobs or work for themselves, our Plan for Jobs and Incomes will help keep a roof over your head.

    We’ve acted already to make sure homeowners can get a three-month mortgage holiday if they need it.

    I’m announcing today nearly £1bn of support for renters, by increasing the generosity of housing benefit and Universal Credit, so that the Local Housing Allowance will cover at least 30% of market rents in your area.

    The actions I have taken today represent an unprecedented economic intervention to support the jobs and incomes of the British people.

    A new, comprehensive job retention scheme.

    And a significantly strengthened safety net.

    Unprecedented measures, for unprecedented times.

    Let me close with one final observation.

    Now, more than any time in our recent history, we will be judged by our capacity for compassion.

    Our ability to come through this,won’t just be down to what government or business can do, but by the individual acts of kindness we show one another.

    The small business who does everything they can not to lay off their staff.

    The student who does a shop for their elderly neighbour.

    The retired nurse who volunteers to cover some shifts in their local hospital.

    When this is over, and it will be over, we want to look back at this moment and remember the many small acts of kindness done by us and to us.

    We want to look back this time and remember how we thought first of others and acted with decency.

    We want to look back on this time and remember how, in the face of a generation-defining moment, we undertook a collective national effort – and we stood together.

    It’s on all of us.

    Thank you.

  • Boris Johnson – 2020 Statement on the Coronavirus

    Boris Johnson – 2020 Statement on the Coronavirus

    Below is the text of the statement made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 20 March 2020.

    Good afternoon and thank you for coming again,

    Today I am joined by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Jennie Harries deputy chief medical officer.

    Yesterday I set out the ambition of this government to turn the tide against coronavirus within 3 months. And I want to repeat that determination today.

    We are going to do it with testing. We are going to do it with new medicines, and with new digital technology that will help us to see the disease as it is transmitted, and thereby, by eliminating it, to stamp it out.

    And above all, now we are going to defeat this disease with a huge national effort to slow the spread by reducing unnecessary social contact.

    And I want to thank everyone for following the guidance we issued on Monday:

    to stay at home for 7 days if you think you have the symptoms,

    for 14 days if anyone in your household has either of the symptoms – a new continuous cough or a high temperature.

    To avoid pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants.

    To work from home if at all possible.

    Keep washing your hands.

    I know it has been tough.

    I know it has been inconvenient.

    But these actions that we’re all taking together are already helping to take the strain off our NHS.

    Bit by bit, day by day, by your actions, your restraint and your sacrifice, we are putting this country in a better and stronger position, where we will be able to save literally thousands of lives, of people of all ages, people who don’t deserve to die now.

    People whose lives can, must, and will be saved.

    And as we take these actions together and as we make these sacrifices, we can see the impact on the real economy.

    Already, fantastic British companies, already under huge strain, big and small.

    Workers who are finding that their jobs are under threat or are going, through no fault of their own. And to all of them, we in government say: We will stand by you.

    And I say that to companies, remember our joint objective: to beat this virus. And we will do everything in our power to help.

    And in just a minute, Rishi is going to explain how we are going to help workers of all kinds to get through this crisis,

    Supporting you directly in a way that Government has never been done before, in addition to the package we have already set out for business.

    And of course these measures are intended to be temporary and of course I am confident that, in time, the UK economy is going to bounce back.

    Of course it is.

    But I must be absolutely clear with you: the speed of that eventual recovery depends entirely on our ability, our collective ability, to get on top of the virus now.

    And that means we have to take the next steps, on scientific advice and following our plan, we are strengthening the measures announced on Monday which you will remember.

    And of course people have already made a huge effort to comply with those measures for avoiding unnecessary social contact.

    But we need now to push down further on that curve of transmission between us.

    And so following agreement between all the formations of the United Kingdom, all the devolved administrations,

    We are collectively telling, telling cafes, pubs, bars, restaurants to close tonight as soon as they reasonably can, and not to open tomorrow.

    Though to be clear, they can continue to provide take-out services.

    We’re also telling nightclubs, theatres, cinemas, gyms and leisure centres to close on the same timescale.

    Now, these are places where people come together, and indeed the whole purpose of these businesses is to bring people together. But the sad things is that today for now, at least physically, we need to keep people apart.

    And I want to stress that we will review the situation each month, to see if we can relax any of these measures.

    And listening to what I have just said, some people may of course be tempted to go out tonight. But please don’t.

    You may think you are invincible, but there is no guarantee you will get mild symptoms, and you can still be a carrier of the disease and pass it on to others

    So that’s why, as far as possible, we want you to stay at home, that’s how we can protect our NHS and save lives.

    To repeat, I know how difficult this is, how it seems to go against the freedom-loving instincts of the British people. And I also know much, right now, workers and business deserve the financial reassurance we are giving them.

    But we will get through this.

    We will get through it together, and we will beat this virus.

    And to ram that point home: the more effectively we follow the advice that we are given, the faster this country will stage both a medical and an economic recovery in full.

  • Robert Rhode James – 1978 Speech on the Blenheim Papers

    Below is the text of the speech made by Robert Rhode James, the then Conservative MP for Cambridge, in the House of Commons on 6 March 1978.

    It is unusual for an hon. Member to have the opportunity of raising in this House a matter which is of concern to him personally and professionally, in addition to his constituency interest, and although the subject which I am raising at this late hour at first sight appear to be somewhat recondite, it has implications and significance which go beyond this particular episode.

    Early in 1977, the Treasury accepted, in partial settlement of the estate of the late Duke of Marlborough, the Blenheim archive, which consists of a very substantial quantity of the papers of John, first Duke of Marlborough, and including the Sunderland papers.

    In April 1977, libraries and archive centres were invited to apply for consideration by the Minister for the Arts—who in such matters seeks the advice of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts—for custody of this uniquely important collection. On 12th April 1977, immediately after this announcement, application was made by Churchill College, Cambridge.

    Churchill College, which was established as a living memorial to Sir Winston, possesses an archives centre which was opened in 1973 and which contains the most modern facilities for the safe storage and use of historical documents. It is a purpose-built archive centre, with the most advanced protection against fire and theft, air-conditioned and humidity-controlled, with a special fumigation for the safe destruction of fungal infestation of documents. It also possesses a comprehensively equipped conservation workshop and a full-time conservationist of very high reputation, whose preservation work, particularly on damaged documents, is of outstanding quality.

    The centre has a keeper, a full-time qualified archivist and graduate assistant, and a secretary, in addition to the conservationist, and full supporting facilities. If it is a small unit, it is a highly efficient unit and its facilities are outstanding, it is widely respected and its staff is devoted to the administration of the archive and its service to scholars.

    The archive contains the voluminous papers of Sir Winston, his father, Lord Randolph, and a considerable number of the papers of John, first Duke of Marlborough. These include some 1,200 original Marlborough documents collected by Sir Winston while he was researching his biography of his ancestor, and presented to Churchill College by Lady Churchill, and also the highly important correspondence between Marlborough and Antonie Heinsius, grand pensionary of The Netherlands during the war of the Spanish succession. These papers were the gift of Queen Wilhelmina and the Dutch Government to Sir Winston in gratitude for his unforgettable services to the cause of Dutch liberation.

    The archive also contains the papers of General Thomas Erie, one of Marl-borough’s most trusted officers. This represents a major collection in itself of the Marlborough papers. Among its more modern collections are papers on Lord Attlee, Lord Swinton, Lord Slim, Lord Esher, Lord Hankey, Lord Vansittart, Reginald McKenna, Sir Edward Spears and—a most satisfactory renewed liaison—Mrs. Virginia Crawford and Sir Charles Dilke. But the gems of the collection are, obviously, the papers of the first Duke, Lord Randolph, and Sir Winston, kept in one archive under perfect conditions in the college that bears their name and commemorates three centuries of brilliant service to this nation by one extraordinary family.

    It was the wish of the present Duke and Lady Churchill that the Blenheim archive should join this collection in Cambridge. Indeed, Lady Churchill felt so deeply about the matter that she joined me in a public letter to The Times and she wrote privately to the Prime Minister. Among others who pressed the case for Cambridge were Mr. Harold Macmillan, Sir John Colville, Professor J. H. Plumb and my hon. Friend the Member for Stretford (Mr. Churchill), who is unable to be present at the debate tonight but has asked me to emphasise his personal and family concern about this matter.

    Although the decision in such matters is technically that of the Secretary of ​ State for Education and Science, effectively it is that of the Minister for the arts, who in his turn is advised by the Royal Commission on Historical Documents. I believe that that excessively complex chain was at least partly responsible for the subsequent confusion and for the extraordinary decision made by the Minister that the papers should be sent to the British Library in London.

    Having invited representatives of the Department of Education and Science and the Commission to visit the centre, Churchill College was surprised and concerned to receive no reply to its application apart from a single printed card of acknowledgement. When a member of the Commission visited Churchill in July 1977, six days before the Commission met to consider the matter, he emphasised that he was doing so informally. It became evident that he was unclear on certain vital and fundamental aspects of the Churchill application.

    When the college raised the matter with the secretary of the Commission, Mr G. R. C. Davis, the eminent former deputy keeper of manuscripts at the British Library, it was informed that a member of the Commission staff had recently visited the archive. In fact, the visit was paid over a month before the public announcement of April 1977 and was again entirely informal and casual in nature.

    It should be said at this point that a major misunderstanding seems to have arisen between the Commission and the DES. The Commission says that its role is purely advisory and that it is not entitled to be in direct contact with applicant institutions. How it is to evaluate their merits without such contact is to me inexplicable. For its part the DES firmly states that the processing of applications lies in the hands of the Commission. In any event, no representative of the Department, let alone the Minister responsible for the decision, has visited Churchill or has been in contact with it except in response to telephone calls.

    As this curious proceeding has taken so long and so mysterious a course, I asked the Minister to meet a deputation consisting of myself, the Duke of Marl-borough, Sir John Colville, my hon. Friend the Member for Stretford, Professor Plumb and representatives of the college on 24th January, the day of Lady Churchill’s memorial service. On 19th January I was informed that the decision was to be announced on 23rd January. In the event it was made on 25th January. There was accordingly no point in the Minister meeting the delegation.

    I assure the Minister of State that I do not want to make any particular point about this, but it seemed unfortunate that the decision was announced in the week of Lady Churchill’s memorial service and that it was not possible for the Minister for the arts to delay the decision until he had heard the distinguished delegation.

    In his announcement of 25th January the Minister said that he had been particularly influenced by the advice of the Commission that

    “the cataloguing, arrangement and scholarly use of the Blenheim archives will require constant reference to and close comparison with other papers of the period already held by the British Library.”

    That statement could not have been made by a scholar and certainly not by anyone with any personal experience of working in the manuscript department of the British Library. The advantages of having the complete archive of the first duke in one site far outweighs the quite illusory asset of “constant reference” to other papers. The Minister’s argument is untenable in historical, scholastic and practical terms.

    The Minister went on to say:

    “I have also been impressed by the scale of the resources required for the proper cataloguing and conservation of the collection.”

    By that he means that he is impressed by the resources of the British Library as he has not discovered those of Churchill College.

    What are the resources at the British Library? I refer the House to a devastating recent article by Mr. Nicholas Barker, the new head of conservation at the British Library, in The Times Literary Supplement of 18th November 1977, entitled “Blight in Bloomsbury”, in which he rightly relates the lamentable conditions for the preservation of books and papers in the library, and concludes that

    “The crisis can only be resolved by an increase in trained conservation staff, and by the provision of proper conditions for the storage and use of all the different kinds of material in the British Library “.

    Mr. Barker’s strictures are fully merited. The British Library does not have air-conditioned or humidity-controlled storage facilities. It does not have adequate staff. Its record in preparing catalogues, in which it has made promises to the Minister which seem to me impossible to fulfil, is poor. The collections themselves are deteriorating. None of this is secret or new information. Indeed, the crisis to which Mr. Barker refers—and such it is—is spelt out clearly and starkly in the annual reports of the Library since 1973, and they make dismal reading. I shall quote only from the 1976–77 report:

    “Strenuous efforts are being made to reduce the cataloguing backlog … The problem of how to best to conserve the priceless collections in the care of the Library while making them available for study to present and future readers has been the subject of a major review. It is clear that substantial additional resources will be required over a considerable period in order to halt the progressive and accelerating deterioration of the collections.”

    All the evidence at my disposal makes me profoundly doubtful whether the British Library is technically capable at present of handling the collection in anything approaching the matter which Churchill College can, and the Duke of Marlborough has authorised me to express his considerable concern on this aspect.

    I should like now to put two questions to the Minister. Is it correct that the board of trustees of the British Library had never been consulted or made a collective decision about either the application or the acceptance? Secondly, can the Minister confirm the points that I have made about facilities at the British Library?

    I am asking for this decision to be at least reviewed, and at best reversed. What it means is that the wishes of the Churchill family—including what was virtually the last wish of Lady Churchill—have been ignored; that the papers of John, first Duke of Marlborough, will have been split up permanently, to the great detriment of scholars and scholarships: that these papers have been entrusted to an institution which does not at present possess the proper facilities for their conservation: and that the archive centre that is most qualified and is most appropriate has had its claims virtually unconsidered.

    There is no case, in terms of scholastic value or practicality, for the Minister’s action. It would, indeed, be a national tragedy if the papers were thus to be divided and for the concept of the Churchill archives—complete, and meticulously maintained—to be damaged so severely by this ill-considered and indefensible decision.

    I should like to conclude on a personal note. As the youthful biographer of Lord Randolph Churchill and of Lord Rosebery, and who played some part in ensuring that the Rosebery papers remained in Scotland, I do not accept the proposition that great collections should necessarily be in London. The Rosebery papers belong to Edinburgh and the Chamberlain papers to Birmingham. Ideally, the Churchill papers should be housed either at Blenheim or Chartwell, but the fact is that the vast bulk of them are now in Churchill College, in my constituency. I appeal to the Minister, and to the House, that this unique collection should be housed in one place, in the building created as a memorial to that family, where it would be complete, and where it would be treasured and preserved for all time.

    I am deeply obliged to the Minister for attending this debate. I am sure he will understand that I am making rather more than a constituency appeal to him.

  • Boris Johnson – 2020 Statement on the Coronavirus

    Boris Johnson – 2020 Statement on the Coronavirus

    Below is the text of the statement made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 19 March 2020.

    I want to begin by thanking everyone, by thanking you, in the media, and also thanking everyone for the huge efforts that the country is making to comply with the advice that we’ve been given

    And we’re asking such a huge amount,

    asking students to put their education on hold,

    we’re asking people not to socialise in the normal way

    And already we can see the impact that this is having on the UK economy and on business, on great, great companies

    And so it’s vital that we in Government stand behind them when what we are asking everyone to do is so crucial for saving literally thousands of lives by defeating this virus

    And I am conscious as the days have gone by that people will want to know how long we are expecting them to keep it up

    And I wanted to try to say something today about how I see the timescale of this campaign and where we’re going and what we need to do

    I do think, looking at it all, that we can turn the tide within the next 12 weeks

    And I am absolutely confident that we can send coronavirus packing in this country but only if we take the steps, we all take the steps we have outlined,

    And that is vital because that is how we are going to reduce the peak

    and once we’ve achieved that, and I think that we will, if take the steps that I have said,

    then the scientific progress that we’re making will really start to come into play and I wanted to discuss a little bit of that this afternoon with you

    because we are rapidly becoming so much better at understanding the genomics at the heart of this virus, a lot of that is going on in this country,

    we’re getting better at understanding the medicines that may treat and cure it

    And today we have put the first British corona patient into a randomised trial for drugs that may treat the disease

    UK experts and scientists expect to start trials for the first vaccine within a month

    And above all we are getting better at testing

    This crisis is so difficult because the enemy is invisible

    And the answer is to remove the cloak of invisibility

    And to identify the virus, and to be able to know which of us, is carrying it or who has actually had it and now got over it

    And to give you an idea of what is coming down the track

    We are in negotiations today to buy a so called antibody test

    As simple as a pregnancy test

    That could tell whether you have had the disease

    And it’s early days, but if it works as its proponents claim then we will buy literally hundreds of thousands of these kits as soon as practicable because obviously it has the potential to be a total gamechanger

    Because once you know that you have had it, you know that you are likely to be less vulnerable, you’re less likely to pass it on, and you can go back to work

    And of course by the same token we are massively increasing the testing to see whether you have it now

    And ramping up daily testing from 5000 a day to 10,000 to 25,000 and then up to 250,000

    And that knowledge of where the virus is, will make a huge difference to our management of the disease and our ability to reduce disruption and economic difficulties

    And I wanted to set that out because this is rapidly coming down the track as I say, but it will take time to come on stream

    And that is why in the meantime, to get back to a theme that you know I’m going to repeat, it is absolutely vital that we follow the advice that we’ve been hearing over the last few days,

    The announcements we’ve already made about staying at home if you have the symptoms, if your family has the symptoms,

    about avoiding unnecessary contact

    Avoiding gatherings where you may pick up the disease

    pubs, bars, restaurants

    Please, please follow all that advice scrupulously

    Work from home if you possibly can

    Wash your hands, wash your hands

    And it’s by this combination of ruthless, determined, collective action and scientific progress that we’re already seeing that we will succeed

    And I know how difficult it may be, or it may seem right now, but if we do this together we will save, as I say, many many thousands of lives

    and to everybody in the UK, business world, everybody who is worried about their jobs, and everybody who faces difficulties because of the advice that we are giving,

    I say to business, stand by your employees, stand by your workers because we will stand by you

    And you’ll be hearing more about that in the course of the next day or so

    And that is how, by a mixture of determined, collective action and scientific progress, I have absolutely no doubt that we will turn the tide of this disease and beat it together.

  • Ian Liddell-Grainger – 2020 Speech on the Future of Farming

    Below is the text of the speech made by Ian Liddell-Grainger, the Conservative MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset, in the House of Commons on 18 March 2020.

    I start my dissertation by firmly apologising to the Minister, who has not had a copy of my speech. I managed to send it to the wrong Minister, so I apologise unreservedly—that just shows quite how incompetent I can be.

    Believe it or not, I am very grateful to have this rare opportunity to address the House about a subject that is very close to my heart and that of a lot of Members—farming. As I am talking about farming, I ask the Minister to make sure that we as a Parliament ensure that vets are taken in as key workers. I know that that was not mentioned today by the Prime Minister, and I take this opportunity to put that forward.

    Adjournment debates are a bit like Opposition election slogans, especially if you turn them upside down—in our case, it would be, “For the few, not the many”. However, at least the few of us here this evening are demonstrating the best health practices. I am keeping a safe distance from the Minister and I promise that no offence is intended.

    This is a difficult time for all of us, I am afraid, farmers included. Let me tell the Minister a bit more about the Bridgwater and West Somerset constituency. At the Bridgwater end, we have some of the lowest-lying farmland in the United Kingdom, and at the West Somerset end, particularly on Exmoor, we have some of the highest. Both areas have faced huge challenges even at the best of times. Down on the levels, we have so far managed to survive the winter without a repeat of the devastating floods that emerged in 17 miles of Somerset six years ago. Back then, the Environment Agency was led by deaf donkeys in blindfolds. It took a great deal of persuasion to convince them that rivers work much better when they are regularly dredged, and I pay enormous tribute to David Cameron for leading that charge. Any of my farmers on the levels could have told them that, and in fact, they did tell them that in no uncertain terms—I went to the meetings.

    The thing about farmers is that they know the land. They respect the weather. They understand that climate is changing and that we cannot afford to sit back and do nothing. They, like me, speak their minds. For example, there is genuine concern about the long-term financial commitment to keep Somerset flood-free. Naturally, I am delighted—as is my whole area, and especially the levels—that the Chancellor’s Budget guaranteed proper funding of £114 million for the tidal barrage. That is incredibly welcome, and I thank the team.

    But the Minister will be aware of the question mark that continues to hang over the future of the Somerset Rivers Authority. The SRA is a flood prevention organisation. It uses the expertise of local drainage boards and the most clued-up councils, such as Sedgemoor District Council. The authority gets its funding from various public organisations but also, crucially, relies on a precept that is added to council tax. That is rare, but not unusual. Without that tax element, all the ambitious plans to safeguard people from the horrors of flooding would be at risk. As of now, the precept is not enshrined ​in law. A private Member’s Bill to fix that passed through the House last year, for which I am grateful to colleagues, but it was then sabotaged by the Liberal Democrats in the other place for reasons that I still, to this day, do not understand.

    However, the new all-singing, all-dancing Environment Bill could easily be tweaked to ensure that the SRA can raise what it needs through precepts. I hope that the Minister will be in a position—perhaps not now, but in the near future—to give me an indication of how and when that problem could be solved. I would be happy to have a discussion with him about that.

    Meanwhile, farmers on the Somerset levels remain understandably anxious, as we all are, over our future trading relations with Europe. This is dairy country—although not exclusively—and the dairy industry is, as one analyst put it recently, “close to broke”. We have one of the largest milk companies in the country, Müller. We are also the home of Yeo Valley. That is why farmers are puzzled and concerned by the decision of the Secretary of State to potentially halt—it depends how we look at it—the culling of badgers in Somerset. I know that it is an emotive subject for all sides, but there is ample evidence that the cull in Somerset is significantly cutting the incidence of tuberculosis and proving its worth. That is because it is being done well. Badgers and their human supporters may take a different view, but I am slightly shocked and worried that the Secretary of State— I say this advisedly—appears to be siding with them.

    Dairy farmers, like all farmers, love their animals. They know how bovine TB can rip through a herd. What kind of message are we sending them? The cull has effectively removed a major health risk. The prospect of vaccinations is still too vague and too far away. I wonder whether the Minister understands the economic tightrope that dairy farmers and beef farmers already face. The only way to make any decent money from milk is to turn it into butter, yoghurt and cheese. Many farmers would struggle or go bust if they could not do that.

    Despite all the hurdles, Somerset cheese has developed a worldwide reputation, which is fantastic. But that was before this awful virus stopped worldwide travel, crippled airlines and squeezed economies right around the globe. A week or so ago, you could visit the swankiest cheese shop in the swankiest food mall in San Francisco and find an unpasteurised Montgomery’s cheese from Somerset displayed in pride of place. The only complaint the proprietor would have was that he could not get enough of it. Now he would be very lucky to receive any supplies at all.

    Cheese makers such as Wyke Farms also export large quantities to Europe—or they did. Even at the best of times, the margins are uncomfortably tight, and these are not the best of times. There is a stupid urban myth about farmers: that they all plead poverty but still find the cash to buy flashy new cars each year. We have all heard that. I can assure the House—I think the House knows it anyway—that that is not true. Every farmer I have ever known works their socks off to break even. They are rightly worried about the impact of new trading hurdle that comes up. The latest threat is to suspend trade at the Sedgemoor auction centre, which is commonly known as junction 24—junction 24 being the junction on the M5. I have to say that that would be a financial disaster for local farmers. The centre attracts ​entries from all parts of England and Wales. The impact on the rural economy, if it closes, cannot be overstated. Farmers, by and large, buy and sell their animals at auction. That is the way it has always been done, and it would be almost impossible to do so at the end of a computer, even if one could get a connection, and I will come to that in a minute.

    I appreciate that tackling the virus is the most urgent national priority, but I ask the Minister to consider whether there are sensible ways in which auction centres such as Sedgemoor can be allowed to continue trading. The public have already been discouraged from attending sales. The organisers are already considering limiting sellers and buyers. They are doing their bit.

    I would like to have discussed the issue with Somerset County Council’s—believe it or not—£108,000-a-year director of public health. However, she is hard to reach and appears to be working at home, as indeed, I am afraid, most of our county staff soon will be. It does not inspire much confidence. I would have expected a decent county council to be making information videos, putting up posters and taking advertising space in the local press to keep us informed. In most counties, people are doing it. That is great. I certainly know that they are doing it in Bristol. I am afraid Somerset, with its fat cat top brass, is silent. This disease demands a better response from county councils. It seems that Somerset is wasting time and money on becoming a unitary authority and is not listening to what the people need. I appeal to the leader of Somerset County Council to please stop posturing and get on with the job.

    When this dreadful virus is behind us, there is one other thing that farmers fear: a post-Brexit tariff war with Europe. Make no mistake, farming is a vital industry in Somerset. It employs, indirectly and directly, many hundreds of people, but it is forced to look over its shoulder and count the pennies all the time. We are no longer a member of the European Union, but until December we remain in the system, claiming the subsidies and following the rules. All that will change, particularly for farmers who will continue to farm on the uplands of Exmoor.

    It has been recognised for the best part of a century that hill farming on Exmoor is viable only because of the subsidy system. Trying to make a living out of some Exmoor farms, if they were unsubsidised, would be like trying to make a living out of a window box. That is flippant, but true. It is not a comfortable living, and I invite any lowland farmer who thinks Exmoor is a featherbed to spend a hard, wet winter high on the moors. This year it has been hard and very wet.

    What we get for our money is the preservation of some of the finest landscape anywhere in the United Kingdom—landscape that forms the key attractions of the south-west’s tourism industry. I can show the Minister plenty of evidence that the landscape is the No. 1 reason most people come to Exmoor on holiday, and rightly so. We welcome any Members of the House who want to come and see how beautiful it is. We must support the hill farmers as generously as we do now.

    Without the hill farms much of Exmoor would revert to an ugly, unloved wilderness—all scrub and, to paraphrase, tumbleweed. Much of the moor is still a no-go area for any kind of modern communications. There are dead zones for mobile phones and internet speeds can be so slow that it is almost quicker to post a letter. I know ​that progress has been made and things have improved, but we are still in an unparalleled national crisis and the Government want people to work from home. That is rightly so and totally supported by the House, but we need a technical taskforce to be able to create a quick fix for Exmoor and other cut-off rural parts. Across the United Kingdom, broadband is a necessity. It is a miracle that our hill farmers continue to put up with it. Thank heavens they do.

    Those who want the land to go back to the wild are not living in the real world. Rewilding may be a fashionable fiction in “The Archers”, but it is make-believe for places such as Exmoor. In any case, only proper farmers can make it work. They have to work the land, not learn it in a book. That is why I want the new Agriculture Bill to match every EU subsidy pound for pound, improve the way that farmers are paid and protect the quality of British products against foreign competition. I do not believe we should tolerate the importing of inferior goods with lower standards than our own. There is a long way to go before the new Bill is passed, and I would like the Minister’s assurance that there is still time for constructive change. I am sure that there will be in Committee.

    I have asked a lot in this short debate—

    7.00 pm

    Motion lapsed (Standing Order No. 9(3)).

    Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—(David Rutley.)

    Mr Liddell-Grainger

    That will teach me to watch the time more carefully.

    I have asked a lot in this short debate. In the weeks and months ahead, farmers will become more important to us all. We will rely on what they produce in ways that we have probably never considered but now need to because we are in a national emergency.

    Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)

    I have read that Somerset County Council has sold off nearly two thirds of its agricultural land in the past decade. The Agriculture Bill Committee is looking at how we can better support county farms, which the Government have promised to do in the past. Does the hon. Gentleman think it is a real shame that the council no longer owns those farms, which often provided an entry to farming for people who could not afford to buy huge swathes of land themselves?

    Mr Liddell-Grainger

    The hon. Lady knows me well—she tempts me, and I will rise to the bait. Yes, it is appalling that the council sold them off. I was totally against their being sold off. County farms were the way that young people got into farming—the way people could get on the farming ladder. The farms were not big—they were comparatively small—but they gave people a chance. Any county that sold them off is an absolute disgrace. Yes, of course, I know that they wanted the money, but we have stopped an entire generation of young people going into farming. I am 61, and the average age of farmers is my age. How long can we sustain real farmers? I do not think that the Government can be blamed for that—although I would probably quite like to blame them, they cannot be blamed—because it was done under many different Governments over many years. ​Places like Somerset, the old county of which we were all part in the old days, had a huge amount of farms, and they were enormous and did such a good job. They have gone over a long time, covering three generations—basically since 1945—but the hon. Lady makes an absolutely fair point and I agree with her.

    I have one final appeal to the Minister. Sedgemoor auction centre is crucial to farmers, as it is—believe it or not—to all of us here. Whatever our party, whatever our age and however much we are at risk, just being here shows that we are still in session. We must support that and stay in business here, and that goes for our farmers, too: they want to stay in business there.