Engagements (Hansard, 19 May 1988)

§ Q4. Mr. Livingstone
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 19 May.

§ The Prime Minister
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.

§ Mr. Livingstone
In the Prime Minister's busy day, will she find time to consider the conviction for murder of Mr. Robert McConnell, a Unionist paramilitary, and investigate who authorised the decision of the RUC to destroy its case notes rather than bring prosecutions against two members of the SAS, Sergeant Aitken and Corporal McGow, who supplied the sub-machine gun used in the murder? Will she therefore report urgently to the House on who authorises SAS operations at political and operational levels at home and abroad?

§ The Prime Minister
As the hon. Gentleman is aware, decisions about prosecutions are not for me. They are for the prosecuting authorities. If the hon. Gentleman has any evidence, I suggest that he puts it to those authorities, rather than give it under privilege. We do not discuss matters relating to the SAS, and no one would want us to do so unless he wished to undermine the security of this country.

§ Q5. Mr. Couchman
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 19 May.

§ The Prime Minister
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.

§ Mr. Couchman
Does my right hon. Friend agree that today's most heartening unemployment and employment statistics underscore our burgeoning economy? Should we 1096 not now be placing the greatest emphasis on training our young people in the skills that will be needed in the 21st century, the shortage of which is beginning to worry successful employers?

§ The Prime Minister
Yes, I agree with my hon. Friend that the figures today are very encouraging indeed. Unemployment has fallen for 21 months in succession and over the last year by about half a million. I agree with him also that we shall need more and more skilled people for the jobs that are available. I hope that everyone, including the trade unions, will support the new adult training scheme, which is intended to give skills to about 600,000 unemployed people to enable them to get the jobs that employers are ready to offer.

§ Mr. Battle
Will the Prime Minister explain how 200 of my constituents, who are skilled workers and who received their redundancy notices from Courtaulds last week, have participated in the new prosperity that she says is for everyone?

§ The Prime Minister
Yes it is difficult for anyone who suddenly faces redundancy, but most people understand that there must be a restructuring of industry. There has to be change. One cannot go on making goods for which there is no demand. The many people, from both sides of the House, who come to see me fully understand that these things have to happen and they set about trying to find companies to go to the area or people who will take up the enterprise allowance to create the jobs and work of the future.

§ Q6. Mr. Stanbrook
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 19 May.

§ The Prime Minister
I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.

§ Mr. Stanbrook
Will my right hon. Friend give some thought this afternoon to the constitutional difficulty that has been exposed by the fate of the Abortion (Amendment) Bill? When the Government are apparently neutral on an important moral issue it is quite impossible for that issue to be settled by means of a private Member's Bill, however meritorious is may be and however much support it may get in this place. Is there not therefore a duty on my right hon. Friend to change her mind about this single constitutional issue? Matters of this sort ultimately depend for decision on the Government giving the opportunity for them to be settled in Government time. It will take only a few minutes one evening at the end of business to settle this one way or the other.

§ The Prime Minister
I would not necessarily accept that there is a constitutional difficulty of the kind that my hon. Friend describes. Many of us have had to take through private Member's Bills that started by being very controversial, and some of us handled them in very different ways. A great deal depends on that, and I do not accept that there is a constitutional difficulty just because this Bill has not got through. I think that the decision we took not to provide time for private Member's Bills was correct.