§
73 Clause 57, page 79, line 42, at end insert—
(1A) This Act shall not come into operation with respect to British Aerospace or to any of the companies referred to in subsection (1) of section 19 above, until such day as the Secretary of State may appoint by order made on or after the date of the first meeting of the next Parliament, but shall otherwise come into operation immediately.
§ The Commons disagreed to this Amendment for the following Reason:
§ 74 Because it is important that the vesting date for the aircraft industry should not be so postponed.
§ Lord MELCHETTMy Lords, I beg to move that this House doth not insist on their Amendment No. 73 to which the Commons hays disagreed for the Reason numbered 74. This Amendment is wholly unacceptable to the Government. Although not debated in another place, there was no attempt to resist the Motion to disagree with your Lordships on the Amendment. This Amendment would impose a delay on the implementation of legislation which would be entirely unacceptable. In the Government's view it represents a fundamental challenge to the principles of the Bill and the will of the elected Chamber. The Government are particularly concerned over the industrial effects of further delay. I have spelled out many times to your Lordships how important it is to end the uncertainty over the future of the aircraft industry so that it can play an effective part in the discussions on international collaboration which are about to enter a critical phase. I hope that noble Lords opposite will not insist on the Amendment.
§ Moved, That this House doth not insist on the said Amendment to which the Commons have disagreed for the Reason numbered 74.—(Lord Melchett.)
1246§ Lord CARR of HADLEYMy Lords, at this stage of our proceedings your Lordships' House has to be selective, indeed extremely selective, in what it decides to insist upon. This has not been an easy decision to take. We have decided to concentrate our attention at this stage on ship repairing, and I believe that to be the right decision. Therefore, with sadness, I am going to advise my noble friends not to insist upon this Amendment. I do this with sadness because we must now watch the aircraft industry submit to the sentence which has been imposed upon it, contrary to all informed industrial opinion and contrary to the findings following the very careful study conducted by the Plowden Committee, which was set up by a Labour Government. Contrary to all this evidence and all these recommendations the Government are hell-bent on submitting the aircraft industry to this doctrinal sentence and fate.
I fear—and if I am wrong, I am wrong, and the country will be glad that I am wrong—that the result of this in the years to come will be an industry smaller in size than it otherwise need be, less active internationally than it otherwise would have been, and of a lower technical quality in relation to other countries than it is now. This is not a sentence of death on the aircraft industry, and those working in it will struggle, as they have always done in the past, to keep it as alive and kicking as possible. But it will be far more difficult for this industry, once nationalised, to remain alive by international standards than it has been hitherto. It will be a very sad day for many thousands of people in this country who obtain their employment from this industry and a very sad day for our exports and for the general technological standards of this country when the Bill, once it is an Act, is implemented.