§ Mr. Frank Dobson (Holborn and St. Pancras)with your permission, Mr. Speaker, I beg leave to present the following petition:
To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled.The humble petition of the people of London and elsewhere sheweth:That we wish to register strong protest at the Government's proposal to cancel the 1985 GLC elections in London and thereby remove from Londoners direct representation in the running of he GLC and ILEA.That the Government's proposal would reduce democratic control over London's public services.That the abolition of the GLC would mean that London would be without a directly elected city wide authority.Wherefore your petitioners pray that your honourable House do not proceed with this undemocratic proposal.And your petitioners, as in duty bound will ever pray.I present the petition on behalf of my right hon. and hon. Friends representing London constituencies. They are the hon. Members for Tottenham (Mr. Atkinson), for Newham, North-West (Mr. Banks), for Greenwich (Mr. Barnett), for Ealing, Southall (Mr. Bidwell), for Leyton (Mr. Cohen), for Islington, North (Mr. Corbyn), for Tooting (Mr. Cox), for Walthamstow (Mr. Deakins), for Battersea (Mr. Dubs), for Norwood (Mr. Fraser), my right hon. Friend the Member for Brent, East (Mr. Freeson), my hon. Friends the Members for Dagenham (Mr. Gould), for Peckham (Ms. Harman), for Vauxhall (Mr. Holland), for Newham, North-East (Mr. Leighton), for Bow and Poplar (Mr. Mikardo), for Brent, South (Mr. Pavitt), for Barking (Ms. Richardson), for Hackney, North and Stoke Newington, (Mr. Roberts), for Hackney, South and Shoreditch (Mr. Sedgemore), my right hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham, Deptford (Mr. Silkin), for Islington, South and Finsbury (Mr. Smith), for Hammersmith (Mr. Soley), for Newham, South (Mr. Spearing) and my right hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Stepney (Mr. Shore).The signatories of the petition number more than 1,066,000. The number of boxes that were delivered to the House exceeded the resources of the Serjeant at Arms and so we have only 10 boxes in front of us, each representing more than 100,000 signatories. I have great pleasure in presenting the petition, which duly presents the views of the people of Greater London.
§ To lie upon the Table.