§ Mr. Tony Benn (Chesterfield)I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 10, for the purpose of discussing a specific matter of public importance that should have urgent consideration, namely,
the practices of Ministers responsible for Government Departments and the conduct of the police in their harassment of miners and their families during the present mining dispute.I am making this application because some new factors have emerged in the past few days and they should be discussed before the recess. The factors relate to new evidence of Government intervention from various Departments, under the direct instructions of responsible Ministers, who are supposed to be answerable to Parliament but who are claiming to be standing back from the dispute. The reality is the very opposite. Ministers have authorised several administrative actions, none of which has been reported to the House.First, instructions have gone out to local offices to delay payments of supplementary benefits, even on the reduced scale, so that some miners' families are not getting their Giro cheques. Secondly, those who work for firms which have been indirectly affected by the dispute and have been laid off by their employers are being treated as strikers and being denied benefit. Thirdly, miners' wives who are expecting babies are being denied grants for baby clothes and basic equipment needed for their children. Fourthly, miners who accepted earlier retirement late last year but whose formal date of leaving fell after 1 March, are being told that they can no longer claim the redundancy pay which was an integral part of the scheme and are being referred back to the Department of Energy, which is not their employer.
Fifthly, the National Coal Board is threatening that miners who do not work this week will be denied the holiday pay entitlement which they earned from work done before the strike began. Sixthly, the electricity authorities are threatening to cut off miners' households unless payments are made on a weekly scale, which would almost take away the full amount of the meagre benefits that are being paid. Seventhly, the police have been instructed to enter the homes of miners who are on strike to search for and evict, under threat of arrest, any other miners who might be staying there, and miners' wives are being harassed in the streets by police patrols. Eighthly, the bail 686 conditions sought by the police and granted by magistrates amount to a systematic denial of civil liberties and the right of assembly when the person concerned has not been convicted of any offence by any court. Lastly, women who are attending pitheads in support of the miners are being harassed and subjected to the same penalties as their husbands.
I submit that these issues are of such importance that if the House ignores them it will give the impression that we are simply not interested in the living conditions of tens of thousands of families and have virtually abdicated our responsibilities to discuss matters that are of public concern, including the maintenance of civil liberties. Moreover, if this debate is again denied, Ministers will conclude that they are free to tighten the screw on miners and their families without having to account to Parliament for their actions.
As I entered the House I heard that a meeting that had been privately and secretly arranged between the NUM and the Coal Board tomorrow had been cancelled by the board. If we do not debate the issue, we shall go through this week and the recess without any public discussion of a matter which, whatever view hon. Members take of it, is of prime concern to those who work in an essential industry, those who work around it and the community, which depends, and always will depend, on the maintenance of the coal industry.
§ Mr. SpeakerThe right hon. Member asks leave to move the Adjournment of the House for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that he thinks should have urgent consideration, namely,
the practices of Ministers responsible for Government Departments and the conduct of the police in the harassment of miners and their families during the present mining dispute.I listened with great care to what the right hon. Gentleman said, but I regret that I have to give him the same answer as I gave the right hon. Member for Morley and Leeds, South (Mr. Rees). I do not consider that the matter that he has raised is appropriate for discussion under Standing Order No. 10 and I cannot, therefore, submit his application to the House.
§ Mr. Eric Deakins (Walthamstow)On a point of order, Mr. Speaker.
§ Dr. David Owen (Plymouth, Devonport)On a point of order, Mr. Speaker.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. I shall take points of order after the third Standing Order No. 10 application.