"Would the Minister not accept that he is putting the traditional Conservative arguments against the devolution of power to the people that were put in opposition to devolution to bodies in Scotland and Wales? Those arguments have been shown to be false by the success of those bodies...." Austin Mitchell - View Speech
"The number of MPs who want to speak today and the passion that has been shown are testimony to the fact that the system has not worked, is not working and ought to be scrapped. I hope that the Minister is listening, because that is clearly a strong concern on …..." Austin Mitchell - View Speech
"I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that intervention. That was one of my concerns as a member of the Public Accounts Committee and it was to have been part of my passionate penultimate ringing declaration when I intended to ask the Government to tell us how much profit …..." Austin Mitchell - View Speech
"It is very important to raise this issue, and I am grateful for the opportunity to take part in doing so. I emphasise at the start that we have no desire to challenge the council and still less to try to dictate policy to the council. That is not the …..." Austin Mitchell - View Speech
"I thought that the hon. Gentleman was going to express admiration for my appearance in a swimming costume, but as he raises a financial matter, I agree absolutely with what he says. There is no reason why we should not co-operate with other local authorities to provide something central for …..." Austin Mitchell - View Speech
"It is a pleasure to take part in this debate, during which we have heard three excellent maiden speeches. All of them were very impressive, so it is clear that we oldies will have to pull our socks up. As I listened to the speeches, I abandoned my long-standing hope …..." Austin Mitchell - View Speech
"We should be grateful to the Backbench Business Committee for giving us this debate, although the fishing debates before previous December Fisheries Council meetings were always three-hour debates on the Floor of the House. I commend to the Minister the idea of going back to that. Rather than exhausting Back-Bench …..." Austin Mitchell - View Speech
"Absolutely. I assume the Minister to be superhuman, and that should be a central point of our negotiations. The intrusion of the European Parliament into co-decision making will make it much more difficult, because there will be all sorts of extraneous interests. It will be interesting to hear the views …..." Austin Mitchell - View Speech
"I congratulate the hon. Member for Burton (Andrew Griffiths) and agree wholeheartedly not only with what he said but with the solutions that he suggested. It is a question not of subsidy but of support and of channelling effort into local newspapers. The local press is vital to all of …..." Austin Mitchell - View Speech