Summer Adjournment

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Tuesday 27th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

I should like to place on the record my congratulations to Members who made their maiden speeches earlier this afternoon. Before we break for the recess, I should like to raise a number of local, national and possibly international issues.

I shall start with local issues. I am sure that the whole House would like to congratulate Elmgrove, Aylward, Glebe, St John’s and Stag Lane schools in my constituency, which have all received Artsmark awards from the Arts Council in the past week. That leads me to a concern being raised at local level, about the wonderful new Cedars youth centre, which is being developed in a partnership between Harrow council, the lottery and Watford football club. Some £4.2 million was set aside for it, but we are awaiting approval from the Department for Education. I trust that that will be forthcoming before the recess is out.

Seventy years have passed since Britain stood alone and the RAF, and Fighter Command in particular, stood between us and the Nazis. The centre of that operation was at Bentley priory in my constituency. Time, of course, has moved on; now there is a challenge as to what we will do with Bentley priory. There is a clear need to preserve the priory for the nation so that we can celebrate what Fighter Command achieved 70 years ago. We must not allow it to fall into disrepair and disuse and pass it on in that state to our children and our children’s children.

Some hon. Members who know me well might wonder why I am raising this next issue in the House. A firm in my constituency called ColArt, which is probably better known as Winsor and Newton, is currently consulting on closing down its operation in Wealdstone and transferring the manufacturing jobs to France and other parts of the world, involving the loss of 200 specialist jobs in the constituency. The local council and the Government need to intervene to safeguard those jobs for local people and to protect manufacturing industry in London. I trust that that support and effort will be forthcoming from the Government before the consultation period is over at the end of September. This afternoon I met representatives of the factory, who are deeply concerned about what is going to happen to their jobs and to the future of manufacturing in our area. I am happy to place on record my firm and full support for their work, and I will, with the firm, be seeking appropriate measures to ensure that we safeguard that facility for local people.

Finally, I want to discuss a case—Regina v. Robert Nicholls and others—which arose on 28 and 29 June in Lewes Crown court, and which probably would have passed unnoticed but for the learned judge’s summing up in directing the jury. The case concerns a number of individuals who committed terrible criminal damage at a local armaments factory in January 2009. As they virtually admitted that they had done so, it was something of a surprise when they were acquitted of the crimes after the jury had deliberated for a very short period. A week to 10 days ago, the summing up by the judge was released. It reads almost like the case for the defence or a plea in mitigation. In the course of some 87 pages, it lists a whole litany of reasons and excuses as to why it is perfectly reasonable for people in this country to commit criminal damage against armaments factories if those factories are supplying the state of Israel.

This has caused immense concern in my constituency, where there are large numbers of Jewish people who believe that it will provide a licence for individuals who oppose the state of Israel to take criminal action against factories in this country that supply the state of Israel. It is the thin end of a very thick wedge, and the Government—the Ministry of Justice—must step in and take action. We cannot have judges with prejudicial views instructing juries to acquit people where there is no evidence to support that outcome. I have asked the Lord Chancellor to intervene in this case and ensure that something is done, and I trust that that will happen before the recess.