§ Q3. Mr. McAllionTo ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 15 July.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. McAllionIs the Prime Minister aware that, because of the legal shackles on British trades unions, this week sacked Timex workers were banned from taking part in the national launch of the Timex boycott campaign, and banned from calling on the support of other British trade unionists?
What is banned here is legal elsewhere in Europe. Sacked Timex workers have been in France this week, exercising the democratic rights denied to them in their own country. Is the Prime Minister not ashamed of the Government's record on labour law, which has isolated Britain in Europe and left British workers on their own, with no social chapter, no wages councils and no effective right to strike? The Government have turned Britain, once one of the workshops of the world, into one of the world's sweatshop economies.
§ The Prime MinisterThe sort of behaviour that we saw from trade unionists at Timex is nothing for the hon. Gentleman to be proud of. I dare say that the jobs lost at Timex as a result will stand as the clearest evidence that the hon. Gentleman's policy is utterly the wrong way to look at labour and trade union relationships.
§ Q4. Mr. KynochTo ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 15 July.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. KynochWill my right hon. Friend thank and congratulate the anti-terrorist branch and MI5 for its continuing efforts to protect the public from terrorist crimes, and especially their efforts yesterday? Does he agree that had we failed to pass the prevention of terrorism Act and gone down the path of giving away Northern Ireland—the policy of the Opposition—the anti-terrorist branch and MI5 might as well have been told by us to pack up their things and go back to traffic duty?
§ The Prime MinisterThe police and the Security Service deserve our congratulations on their professionalism and vigilance. They have demonstrated that in fighting terrorism over many years. It is clear, and it has been endorsed repeatedly by the House, that we need the prevention of terrorism Act to defeat the terrorists. With the greatest goodwill in the world, I cannot understand why, year after year, Opposition Members have voted it down.
§ Mr. BoyceIn view of the Prime Minister's utterances in recent days `bout nuclear weapons being defensive measures, may I ask him to take this opportunity to assure the House, the country and the world that Britain will never use them first?
§ The Prime MinisterThe hon. Gentleman should know better than to ask such a daft question.
§ Q5. Mr. Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 15 July.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. WintertonMy right hon. Friend has announced this afternoon dramatic improvements in a number of economic indicators which are of immense interest to the House and the country. Will he continue to encourage manufacturing industry as a way of improving our economy, and will he ensure that in the Budget to be announced in December, the fragile recovery of our manufacturing base, which is vital to our future, will continue to be encouraged and that measures will be introduced to ensure that recovery and continued economic growth?
§ The Prime MinisterThe whole House knows and respects my hon. Friend's advocacy of manufacturing, so he will be as pleased as I am about the growing success of British manufacturers. As he knows, my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Thames (Mr. Lamont) introduced measures in the Budget and autumn statement to help manufacturing industry. I say also to my hon. Friend that the one thing that would do great damage to manufacturing industry would be the provisions of the social chapter.
§ Mrs. MahonDoes the Prime Minister realise that 500,000 of the present unemployed are aged between 18 and 24 and that, because of the cuts that he helped to introduce, they are having to manage on £4.97 a day? Does he think that that is enough to keep them in food and on which they can live? Will he take action now to end the discrimination against that age group, instead of making cheap political points at the expense of the unemployed?
§ The Prime MinisterI do not think that the hon. Lady has grasped the training opportunities that exist for young people. I want youngsters to take up those training opportunities. That is what they are there for and it is in their interest to take them up.
§ Mr. AmessTo ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 15 July.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. AmessDoes my right hon. Friend agree that the Government's trade union reforms have made a significant contribution to Britain's increased industrial competitiveness over the past 10 years, while the trade unions have made a significant contribution to the Labour party's electoral uncompetitiveness over the same period?
§ The Prime MinisterI agree with my hon. Friend, and I came across an interesting quote last week from a delegate at a Transport and General Workers Union conference, who said:
We are not the tail wagging the dog. We are the dog.That is the true relationship between Labour and the unions. The unions are the dog and Labour is the lamp post.
§ Q7. Mr. HainTo ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 15 July.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. HainWhat is the Prime Minister going to do about corruption in his flagship council in Westminster? When will he stop crooks financing the Conservative party? Why did he allow 44 of his own Members to vote themselves tax privileges in the Lloyd's amendments on Tuesday? Is that why he is the most unpopular Prime Minister on record?
§ The Prime MinisterThe best that can be said about that compendium question is that it is worthy of the hon. Gentleman.
§ Mr. FryIn welcoming the unemployment figure, will my right hon. Friend also take time to express vividly to all those in employment the cost of the social security budget, currently running at more than £60 a week for every worker? Does not that large sum justify the Government's intention to re-examine that budget?
§ The Prime MinisterMy hon. Friend is right about that for the reasons that I have set out on a number of occasions in recent weeks. That problem is faced not only in Britain, but right across the European Community, in Japan, the United States and other industrial countries.