CONSERVATIVE
New Forest East

1997-8

1997-8

[NOTE: Amendments are linked to the original EDMs which Julian amended.]

EDM 1541A1 – 16 July 1998

CO-OPERATION IN EUROPE Amdt. line 14:

leave out from "bank" to end and add "and welcomes the findings of the recent Gallup poll showing that only 33 per cent. of the British people support abolition of the Pound and its replacement by the Euro, whilst 65 per cent. oppose EMU and just 2 per cent. are undecided.".

EDM 1361A1 – 3 June 1998

CONDUCT OF THE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION AND THE EUROPEAN SINGLE CURRENCY Amdt. line 1:

leave out from "House" to end and add "regards Economic and Monetary Union as a devious method of creating a politically unified Europe by stealth; believes that it will undermine the system of free parliamentary democracies on which European peace depends; but takes comfort from the fears of federalist honourable Members that mere speeches by the Leader of the Opposition and other opponents of EMU will be enough to bring it down.".

EDM 1275A2 – 30 April 1998

CHIEF INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS Amdt. line 1:

leave out from "House" to end and add "wholeheartedly congratulates the Chief Inspector of Schools [Chris Woodhead] for his courageous campaign to overturn the disastrous teaching doctrines dating from the 1960s, which have undermined the learning prospects of generations of schoolchildren.".

EDM 950 – 9 March 1998

MEMORIAL TO FLIGHT LIEUTENANT S.M. KINKEAD, RNAS/RAF

[This Motion was supported by 107 Members of Parliament.]

That this House salutes the memory of Flight Lieutenant Samuel Marcus 'Kink' Kinkead, who volunteered for the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Air Force, gaining 32 aerial victories in the First World War; recalls his gallant exploits between the ages of 20 and 22, which were recognised by successive awards of the DSC and Bar, DFC and Bar and DSO; notes that he participated in the Schneider Trophy Contest as a member of the RAF High Speed Flight, but was killed attempting to raise the world air speed record to more than 300 miles per hour; endorses the glowing tributes paid to him as one of the finest RAF officers of his generation; and welcomes the decision of Hampshire County Council to unveil a permanent memorial to him at Calshot, where he flew, to mark the 70th anniversary of his death on 12th March 1928.

EDM 733A1 – 25 February 1998

CND's 40th ANNIVERSARY YEAR Amdt. line 1:

leave out from "House" to end and add "notes that an ICM poll of 1,200 adults, commissioned to coincide with CND's 40th anniversary in February leave out from "House" to end and add "notes that an ICM poll of 1,200 adults, commissioned to coincide with CND's 40th anniversary in February 1998, asked: 'Do you think that Britain should continue to possess nuclear weapons as long as other countries have them?'; further notes that 76 per cent. answered 'Yes', 21 per cent. answered 'No' and 3 per cent. were undecided; and therefore regards claims that 59 per cent. of the British electorate support unilateral nuclear disarmament, as patently absurd.".

EDM 724 – 3 February 1998

CONDUCT OF THE PAYMASTER GENERAL

That this House notes with concern the article in the February 1998 edition of Business Age about the financial affairs of the Paymaster General [Geoffrey Robinson] and is disturbed at its claims that Robert Maxwell, having stolen £450 million from 30,000 Mirror and Maxwell company pensioners, arranged for the honourable Member for Coventry North West to receive £6.25 million for companies "which were virtually worthless", that, immediately after this deal, the honourable Member "began transferring monies to an offshore trust in Bermuda" by moving 2,445 shares from his Latchuster Property Company to his Bermuda Trust Company, that the honourable Member has channelled monies into five more offshore trusts he has set up: the NuStart Trust, the Emily Jane Trust, the Watch Hill Trust, the Franchesca Trust and the Anna Trust, that Mr Maxwell gave the honourable Member £1 million in cash and a controlling interest in one of his companies, Central and Sherwood, to buy him out of Transfer Technology Ltd., that Madame Joska Bourgeois's bequest to the honourable Member was a "thank you" for her having been able to buy Jaguar cars on very favourable terms and that the honourable Member assisted in and benefited from Madame Bourgeois's £5 million tax fraud against the Belgian taxpayer; accordingly calls upon the Paymaster General to state if there is any truth in these charges; and, if they are untrue, invites him to take appropriate steps to refute them.

EDM 673A1 – 26 January 1998

CAMPAIGN FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT Amdt. line 1:

leave out from "House" to end and add "notes that for 40 years the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has demanded the one-sided abandonment by Britain of nuclear weapons, nuclear bases and nuclear alliances, without success; realises that such a policy, if implemented, would have left Britain in a state of helpless neutrality at the height of the Cold War; recalls that CND totally rejected President Reagan's 1981 Zero Option offer which led to the successful Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987, once unilateralism had been defeated; further notes that, under the provisions of the INF Treaty, hundreds of Soviet SS20 missiles threatening Western Europe were destroyed in return for the scrapping of NATO's cruise and Pershing II missiles which CND had fortunately failed to prevent from being deployed; deplores the statement by CND's then General Secretary, Bruce Kent, in 1983 that Britain's Communists were CND's 'partners in the cause for peace in this world'; realises that the Labour Party's support for CND's anti-nuclear policies was a key factor in Labour's heavy defeats in the 1983 and 1987 general elections; further recalls the deletion of CND membership details from dozens of Labour candidates' official biographies during the 1992 General Election campaign, by Party Headquarters staff; and doubts if many unilateralist Labour and Liberal honourable Members will have the courage openly to support CND on its 40th anniversary.".

EDM 501 – 25 November 1997

CONDUCT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AT QUESTION TIME

That this House deplores the disgraceful slur against the new honourable Member for Buckingham [John Bercow] by the Prime Minister at Question Time on 19th November 1997, that having worked as a Special Adviser for the Treasury in any way invalidates his good faith, integrity and right to ask legitimate questions of the Prime Minister about the Labour Party's receipt of £1 million from Bernie Ecclestone; and accordingly calls upon the Prime Minister to withdraw and apologise.

EDM 377 – 30 October 1997

CONDUCT OF THE HONOURABLE MEMBER FOR HARTLEPOOL

That this House notes the recent admission by the Minister without Portfolio [Peter Mandelson], that he was active in the Young Communist League when MI5 opened a file on him in the early 1970s; regards as unacceptable his excuse that this amounted to the holding of ordinary left-wing views; deplores his reported demand that MI5 files on Cold War subversives should be destroyed; and urges the Director-General of the Security Service to resist partisan and self-serving political pressure from the Minister without Portfolio.

EDM 277 – 21 July 1997

CONDUCT OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MEMBER FOR WOKINGHAM (No. 2)

That this House regrets the slur on the reputation of the Right honourable Member for Wokingham [John Redwood] and his wife in EDM 275; notes that the BA acquisition of DanAir took place in October 1992; rejects the idea that there was any conflict of interest, as the Right honourable Member for Wokingham was then Local Government Minister in the Department of the Environment with no contact with the DTI or the Department of Transport handling the issue; and confirms that the Right honourable Member for Wokingham has never decided issues or taken up causes at the request of British Airways.

EDM 272A1 – 24 July 1997

McDONALDS Amdt. line 2:

leave out from "history" to end and add "notes with relief that huge sums of legal aid are not available to assist destitute defamers to tell lies about others with minimal risk to themselves but at enormous cost to the public purse.".

EDM 203A1 – 7 July 1997

NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT Amdt. line 1:

leave out from "House" to end and add "recognises that general and complete nuclear disarmament must be accompanied by general and complete conventional disarmament if it is not simply to make the world safe, once again, for full-scale conventional warfare.".

EDM 181 – 26 June 1997

CONDUCT OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WALES TOWARDS THE HONOURABLE MEMBER FOR BLAENAU GWENT

That this House notes with grave concern the repeated claims by the honourable Member for Blaenau Gwent [Llew Smith] that he was threatened with being "kicked out of the Parliamentary Labour Party" by the Secretary of State for Wales [Ron Davies], notwithstanding the Prime Minister's assurances that no such threat was ever made; further notes that, despite the Prime Minister's assurance to this House that he had "investigated the matter", the honourable Member for Blaenau Gwent states that he was never contacted in any such investigation; and accordingly calls for an immediate inquiry into this matter by the Committee on Standards and Privileges.