§ Mr. George Foulkes (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley)On a point of order, Mr. Speaker.
§ Mr. SpeakerI hope that it is not because the hon. Gentleman has not been called at business questions.
§ Mr. FoulkesYou kindly said that you would call hon. Members next week who had been rising. Somewhat eccentrically, the question that I was going to ask was about next Wednesday's business.
§ Mr. SpeakerWhat bad luck.
§ Mr. Foulkesrose—
§ Mr. SpeakerNo—I am sorry, that was a bit provocative. However, I gave the hon. Member a very good run yesterday, and the day before.
§ Mr. Tony Marlow (Northampton, North)On a point of order, Mr. Speaker—not related to business questions or to the fact that I am sulking or anything like that; it is a totally different matter.
Whenever there has been a whiff of financial scandal in the past, the Opposition, very much to their credit, have raised it and brought it before the public, and there has been a great hue and cry about it. Unaccountably, the Opposition have not requested a statement on one of the great scandals involving Robert Maxwell. Will you, Mr. Speaker, tell the House whether you have been approached on the subject, and, if so, have the Opposition told you why they do not want a statement on it?
§ Mr. SpeakerThe trouble with points of order like that is that they are highly contagious.
§ Mr. Dennis Skinner (Bolsover)In view of what you, Mr. Speaker, have had to say about the Consolidated Fund Bill, can you give some assurance that, if this matter about Maxwell and him laundering money is raised, you will ensure that people such as Arthur Scargill and Peter Heathfield will be given special tickets to sit in the Gallery so that they can hear the debate and so that they can draw the attention of various channels to the fact that perhaps Mr. Lightman should investigate the missing Maxwell millions, and perhaps we can find out whether Roger Windsor, Mr. Maxwell's nark, was paid £50,000 out of the Daily Mirror's missing millions. Those are the questions that we would like to be asked.
§ Mr. SpeakerThere are opportunities to raise these matters next week. They would have to be raised in a parliamentary manner, and certainly couched in the proper terms.
§ Mr. Peter Thurnham (Bolton, North-East)On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Could you give guidance on the important matter of confidences given us by constituents? It is important that constituents should be able to consult us about confidential matters, but surely we should not go so far as to give comfort to murderers and bombers, as has been suggested. The hon. Member for Tottenham (Mr. Grant) said that he had been misquoted. Will you give a 415 ruling, Mr. Speaker, that we are not like doctors, lawyers and priests, and that we should uphold the police and support them in their duties?
§ Mr. SpeakerI think I know to what the hon. Member is referring. The fact is that there is no privilege for confidences given to hon. Members. It is a matter for the discretion of hon. Members.
§ Mr. Bob Cryer (Bradford, South)On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. In view of the point of order raised by the hon. Member for Northampton, North (Mr. Marlow), I ought to make it clear that we would very much like to see an investigation of the missing pension funds. Also, we have been calling for many years for legislation to get rid of the offshore tax havens of the sort that Lord Duncan-Sandys ploughed money into from Lonrho about 1970.
§ Mr. SpeakerI think that would be quite a good subject.
§ Mr. Tim Devlin (Stockton, South)May I ask you about a serious point of order, Mr. Speaker? I have noticed the growing practice on Prime Minister's questions and on questions to other Ministers of Members on both sides of the House, but primarily Opposition Members, asking personal questions which do not relate to the Minister's responsibility. For instance, today the Prime Minister was asked about his period of unemployment.
§ Dr. Lewis Moonie (Kirkcaldy)The hon. Gentleman might be unemployed soon.
§ Mr. DevlinI doubt it very much. I wonder, Mr. Speaker, whether you could give us some guidance on the point. Surely Ministers are appearing at the Dispatch Box solely to answer questions about their governmental responsibilities.
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Member is absolutely right. In view of what he has said, I deeply regret having called him, I think on Question 2, to ask a question about the Northumbria police which had nothing to do with his constituency. I do allow a slight discretion in these matters.
§ Mr. David Winnick (Walsall, North)The hon. Member for Northampton, North (Mr. Marlow) talked about an inquiry into the position of the Mirror Group pension fund. May it be made clear for the record that my hon. Friend the Member for Redcar (Ms. Mowlam), who is a junior Front-Bench spokesman, wrote to the Secretary of State this week asking for an inquiry? We are deeply concerned about the matter, about the theft that has taken place and about the laxity of the rules which allowed that to happen. We want a prompt inquiry.
§ Mr. SpeakerI think I called the hon. Member on business questions. Couched in the right terms, that seems to fall within the ambit of a Consolidated Fund Bill debate, or one of the Adjournment debates before we go off for Christmas.