§ Mr. SpeakerIn view of the answer that the Prime Minister has just given covering the application under Standing Order No. 20 of the hon. Member for Linlithgow (Mr. Dalyell), does he wish to proceed?
§ Mr. Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow)Before 9 o'clock, Mr. Speaker, I gave you notice that I wished to raise under Standing Order No. 20, the subject of
the detonation and ignition by Iraq of the oilfields in Kuwait.In answer to the right hon. Member for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale (Sir D. Steel), the Prime Minister said that he would make information public. May I put it to the Prime Minister—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The application is to me. The hon. Member is asking for an emergency debate on this matter.
§ Mr. DalyellThe matter is definite, urgent and important. Under "definite" I ask that we just see the visual images, that are like Flixborough or Piper Alpha, of the fires in the Kuwaiti oilfields. The truthful answer is that we do not yet know the causes. It depends on oxygen, on the amounts of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide, and on the problems of photochemical smog, but I argue that this an important matter and that it ought to take precedence over the business later tonight or tomorrow.
What is at issue is the injury to the planet: the soot could make agriculture, both animal husbandry and crop-growing, impossible and could effect the lives of millions of people if, as has been argued on the best scientific grounds, the monsoons were to be altered by this sort of fire.
I put it to you, Mr. Speaker, with the good will that the Prime Minister showed in his answer and with his undertaking, that there would be constant reporting of events in the Gulf, and that, through the usual channels, you give precedence, either later tonight or tomorrow, to the ecological and human results of these disastrous fires. Unless there is a ceasefire, who will put them out?
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Member for Linlithgow (Mr. Dalyell) seeks leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 20, for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that he believes should have urgent consideration, namely,
the detonation and ignition by Iraq of oilfields in Kuwait.I have no doubt that, if what the hon. Member has outlined were to occur, that would be a very serious matter. I have listened carefully to what he has said about it today. I have to say that, in this case, the matter which he has raised does not meet the criteria of Standing Order No. 20, and I therefore cannot submit his application to the House.