Common Agricultural Policy
Debate between Bob Stewart and Neil Parish(11 years, 7 months ago)
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Neil Parish
My hon. Friend is right to a degree, but is it right that the most productive land across the whole of Europe, including in East Anglia, should get the highest payments, given that farmers there can make the most from that land? We must have some balance in the process. We have talked about the uplands tonight, and there is no doubt that upland livestock farmers struggle. In my view, it could be argued—my right hon. Friend the Member for South East Cambridgeshire will probably jump out of his seat—that some of those farmers in East Anglia, Cambridgeshire and elsewhere across the country who can grow very good arable crops, perhaps 10 tonnes of wheat per hectare, could see just a little bit of those payments move uphill. That is what we are trying to do, but I think that we probably need to do a little more. There is an argument there, but I think that we need to ensure that we support farming in those marginal areas, which is more difficult.
We must also ensure that in the end we deliver a policy that encourages food production. It is great to support the environment, but we must remember that in the uplands and on a lot of the permanent pasture on the hills it is the cattle and sheep that will keep farming as it is. It was not put there by God; it was put there by farmers. We must remember that it is the farmers who look after the countryside. We must remember that in order to support them, we must ensure that they have an income. We have to spread that as far and wide as we can.
Bob Stewart
Certainly. Will my hon. Friend enlighten me as to whether we have any control over how we allocate the CAP in England, or is that decided in Brussels?
Neil Parish
First, I congratulate my hon. Friend on reaching that great age. There are—dare I say it?—others in the House who have reached an even greater age. He asks a difficult question. We are limited by how much of it we can decide ourselves, as a lot is decided by the European Commission and, finally, the Council. As my right hon. Friend the Member for South East Cambridgeshire said, it is very difficult to change things at that stage. We can tweak some of the environmental schemes a bit—there are the odd things we can do—but in the end we have to go along with much of what is in the policy.
Overall, the CAP overall should be moving towards a simpler system, but we are not getting that. We should be weaning farmers off more and more public support, but I want that to happen across the whole of Europe. As the hon. Member for Brecon and Radnorshire said, there are many different types and levels of payment. Margaret Thatcher said, “Don’t buck the markets”, but that is exactly what we do. We have all sorts of different levels of payments across the whole of Europe and then expect farmers to compete in a single market, which is almost impossible. More and more of the subsidy should be phased out, and farmers should increasingly stand on their own two feet. We should make sure that we get a decent price for food and use biotechnology to produce even more food so that in the end we can feed the growing population.
Interest Rate Swap Derivatives
Debate between Bob Stewart and Neil Parish(12 years, 3 months ago)
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Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)
It is a great pleasure to see you in the Chair, Madam Deputy Speaker. I congratulate you. I also congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Aberconwy (Guto Bebb) on opening the debate, and congratulate him and his Committee on all the work they have done.
In mythology, David felled Goliath. [Hon. Members: “It is in the Bible!”] It is in the Bible, but it is also slightly mythological. [Hon. Members: “It happened!”] If Members have absolute proof, that is fine. Anyway, I want to make a serious point. We have seen a banking sector that has used corporate lawyers and all its muscle and might to ensure that it can take on small businesses.
This is what small business is up against. People can call me cynical if they like, but much of this selling of swaps was going on in 2006 and 2007, when interest rates were 5.5%, but by 2009 they had dropped to 0.5%, and I believe that many of those banks knew that interest rates were going to fall. Why were they so keen to go out and get everybody tied up in these swaps? Under the terms of the swaps, the higher interest rate could probably be capped at around 6.9%, but if they started to fall below 4% or 3%, people immediately got clobbered for huge amounts of money. It was therefore very much in the banks’ interests to get people into these schemes. That is where I do actually say that what went on was criminal. That is why we expect our great Minister, along with the FCA, to do something about this. The fact that only 32 or 33 cases in the whole country have been dealt with is an absolute scandal.
Bob Stewart
My hon. Friend referred to the Bible. Does he agree that this would be called usury or robbery in the Bible?
Funding for Local Authorities
Debate between Bob Stewart and Neil Parish(12 years, 4 months ago)
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Neil Parish
I do not necessarily want to get into a debate on how the new finance will be handled. Retaining the business rates and the new homes bonus are all part of it. A system where it is shared more equally across all authorities in the future may be one answer, but I do not want to argue with all the Government’s policies. I just want them to carry on with the very sensible policies that they had. [Interruption] Did my hon. Friend the Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart) want to intervene?
Bob Stewart (Beckenham) (Con)
When invited to intervene, I am delighted to do so. In the area that I represent, Beckenham in Bromley, we sometimes feel that although we are part of London, we are quite hard done by. For example, meeting the statutory requirements to 2018 will inevitably result in a £36 million deficit, so it is not easy. The metropolitan areas also have problems and there are differences between metropolitan areas. Bromley is currently very hard done by.
Neil Parish
My hon. Friend, who asked to intervene, is right. There is a different definition in DEFRA from the one used in local government, which does not seem to recognise councils that have a large rural population and larger rural parts of their areas. Why is it that the Department for Communities and Local Government does not recognise the DEFRA definition and may come up with another one? Is it to complicate the grant system still further? It would be cynical, would it not, to suggest such a thing.
We are here to press the Secretary of State to make good on the long-standing promise to correct the historic imbalance and give rural local authorities their fair share of central Government funding, in line with the summer consultation. We call on the Government to reduce the urban funding advantage over rural areas incrementally, year on year, to no more than 40% by 2020. Closing the gap between urban and rural can be achieved within the existing resources, within the period to 2020, without placing any individual authority in a worse position than others, and it is one of the recommendations to be made to the Government by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, of which I am a member, in its report on our inquiry into rural communities.
By reducing urban funding by an extra 0.1% per year of the £24 billion local government funding settlement, the Government can reallocate £30 million to rural authorities and reduce the funding gap from 50% to 40% by 2020. I know that this is a matter of concern across the House. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Devon (Sir Nick Harvey) and my hon. Friends representing Worcestershire for helping me to secure the debate today. I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr Stuart), who chairs the rural fair share campaign—
Neil Parish
Indeed. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness for pursuing the issue with great vigour, for considering the issue with Ministers with such tenacity, and for helping to secure this debate, as well as for the support and information provided by the local authorities in Devon and across the country.
A quarter of England’s population live in rural communities. Providing services presents many challenges to local government. This is particularly true in rural Devon, where there are serious barriers to services, with nearly 56% of residents living in rural areas across the county and with the house price to earnings ratio well below the national average. Lower than average wages and higher house prices is a trend replicated in other rural local authorities.
Animal Welfare (Exports)
Debate between Bob Stewart and Neil Parish(13 years, 2 months ago)
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Neil Parish
I endorse my hon. Friend’s comments about EBLEX, which is doing a good job in promoting our lamb and beef abroad. On this occasion, I will be magnanimous and say that Welsh lamb, Scottish lamb, English lamb and west country lamb are all wonderful. I will not tell Members which one I think is the best, but they will probably have a fairly good idea.
Neil Parish
Parts of the west country are in England, but I will not enter into that debate this afternoon.
It is essential for us to deal with the issue in a grown-up manner. I thank the Minister for the steps he has already taken and look forward to hearing his winding-up speech. As the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife has said, perhaps there is now a case for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee to look at the issue, in order to see exactly how the trade is being conducted, to make sure that the rules are in place and to double-check whether the lorries, other vehicles and all those involved are operating it correctly.
If sheep or cattle that are not lame or ill, which is exactly as they should be, are loaded on to and transported in the right type of lorry, they should get to their destination in France, Ireland or wherever it be—that is a Somerset expression—in good condition, and that is what the industry wants. I reinforce the point that it is not in the interests of the farming community or those carrying out the trade to take an animal across in poor condition.
Holocaust Memorial Day 2012
Debate between Bob Stewart and Neil ParishWestminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
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Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon Central (Gavin Barwell) for securing this debate. We have heard emotional speeches, and I feel that the holocaust is one of those subjects I must speak about—it is a feeling inside. Seventy years on, it is perhaps difficult for us to understand the scale of the holocaust, and having been to Israel and the holocaust museum, and having seen the shoes and the clothes and possessions of the millions of Jewish people who were killed, it is almost impossible to comprehend.
As other hon. Members have pointed out, it is also difficult to understand the industrial scale of the holocaust. It was carried out by educated people who came together to create a genocide that had never been seen before, and that is the callousness of it all. However terrible it is to shoot people, or whatever, the actual creation of gas chambers and railways to transport people, together with all the bureaucracy to exterminate a people, is almost unbelievable.
We must also remember that out of a population of some 18 million, the Jewish people lost a third of their population; again, that is almost impossible to comprehend. There cannot be a Jewish family in the world who have not been touched by what happened during that period. The Holocaust Educational Trust is so right to remind people not just that terrible atrocities took place, but of what actually happened. We need to be reminded that these things can and did happen, and we must ensure, as far as possible, that they do not happen again.
We talk about the holocaust and the number of Jewish people who were murdered. One can sometimes understand very much the attitude of Israel when it is surrounded by neighbours who say that they do not want Israel to exist—that it should be wiped off the face of the map. The Jewish people have suffered historically. One third of their population was wiped out, so one can understand how strongly they feel. My constituency does not have a huge Jewish population, and I am not of a Jewish family myself, but as many other hon. Members have said, one great thing that we British have is a sense of fair play. What happened was absolutely not fair play, and we need to stand up and be counted.
My hon. Friend the Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart) made a great speech about Bosnia and Srebrenica. I, too, have been to Srebrenica: I have been to the factory where many of the killings took place. We cannot afford to be complacent, because atrocities continue to be committed. As my hon. Friend said, that place is only two hours by plane from where we sit, but it happened, and in the 1990s. One would think that it is not possible. I met mothers and wives who had lost their sons and husbands. They believe that many of the people who carried out those atrocities are still out there, free, not having been brought to book.
Neil Parish
Yes, exactly. Again, the situation is hugely emotional. Today is one of those times when we remember what happened and we support very much the Jewish state and Jews throughout the world, who have suffered so badly. Although we congratulate ourselves on the huge improvements that have taken place, we must never take our eye off the ball, because these things could happen again. I endorse so much of what other hon. Members have said. It would be absolutely right to have a debate such as this every year to ensure that we lay down clearly on the record what Parliament feels and what Britain feels about what happened, and what we will try to do to make sure it does not happen again.