Businesses: Debt
Debate between Lord Tebbit and Baroness Wilcox
Baroness Wilcox
The noble Lord, Lord Borrie, who is a former Director-General of the Office of Fair Trading, always comes up with something on which I would like to reflect, and I will do so on this occasion. If he would like to write to me explaining exactly what it is that he thinks is a good idea, this Government are always willing to listen.
Lord Tebbit
My Lords, does my noble friend agree that if we did not have to create legislation that suited all members of the European Community and could just do this legislation on our own to suit ourselves, it could have been done months ago—perhaps even years ago, during the time of the last Labour Government?
Baroness Wilcox
We are keen and happy members of the European Community, my Lords.
Business: Ethical Values
Debate between Lord Tebbit and Baroness Wilcox
Baroness Wilcox
Well, my Lords, greed was of course only one of the seven deadly sins. If I reflect on some of the others, I can see that they can be just as contagious and nasty. However, I shall reflect on the fact that one of my favourite poets, Kipling, wrote a wonderful poem called Norman and Saxon in which he describes how the people of this land will put up with pretty well anything at all, but they will not put up with the fear of unfair dealing. If we look for fair dealing in the relationship between the Government, their people and our business community, we should get somewhere.
Lord Tebbit
My Lords, does my noble friend not agree that the best way of asserting the rights of the owners of a business, as opposed to the hired help—men like “Fred the Shred”—would be if some of them were put on trial for falsifying the accounts of the businesses which they ran? They either knew or ought to have known that the accounts and the balance sheets that they brought forward were false.
Baroness Wilcox
We know that the shareholders hold the power in this country’s large corporations, and if they will, please, use it to call the people in those companies to account, we should see some movement. That is what we are encouraging.
Employment Law: Unfair Dismissal
Debate between Lord Tebbit and Baroness Wilcox
Baroness Wilcox
Other rights, including “day one rights” such as the right not to be discriminated against, are unaffected and will continue to be so. We are trying to see whether this particular piece of work will get more people into employment and will work for smaller companies, which are nervous and which do not very often have big HR departments to help them. We need to get the trust back between the employer and the employee and I think that this will be a good way to do it.
Lord Myners
My Lords, the Minister has spoken about the need to create more employment for young people. How is the Minister going to ensure that new employment opportunities for young people are not achieved at the risk of displacing the employment of older people?
Baroness Wilcox
That is a very interesting question. We are obviously serious about tackling youth unemployment. We have very high youth unemployment. But I am slightly older, and am still employed, and I would like to continue to be so, if that is possible. The balance is that the employer will use the talent that he has got to keep his business profitable. If his business is not profitable and he goes out of business, then nobody has a job.
Lord Tebbit
Would my noble friend remind the House of the period for which an employee has to work before he or she is completely free to break their contract of employment by going on strike, as we shall see many civil servants do next week?
Baroness Wilcox
Gosh. I am afraid that I do not have the details of the answer to that question, but I will write to the noble Lord.