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Benefits of School-Based Sports
High fives. School spirit. Team pride. School-based sports programs can bring out noticeable positive reactions and behaviors in teens. But what are the deeper benefits from these programs? What are we losing when schools are forced to cut these programs?
The most extensive research has come in a report called “Relationships Between Youth Sport Participation and Selected Health Risk Behaviors from 1999 to 2007” published in the Journal of School Health. This report analyzes many different factors, including race, age, and gender, and behaviors, including eating habits, sexual activity, and drug risks. The report found that many groups experienced overall benefits, with the exception of some subgroups. Overall, the study found that advantages of sports include:
Weight control
Problem-solving skills
Self-esteem
Social competence
Academic achievement
And sports can lead to reduced rates of:
Juvenile arrests
Teen pregnancies
School dropout
(Taliaferro, 2010)
In addition to these social and emotional benefits, sports can also bring about intangible benefits to the school and community as a whole. “Sports also create important opportunities for students to contribute to the school community, which may cultivate an increased commitment to, or identification with, school and school values.” (Taliaferro, 2010)
This article will look closer at some of these benefits and how school administrators can factor these into their decisions regarding school-based sports programs.
Health Benefits
The clearest benefits of school-based sports programs can be seen in the overall physical health of teenagers. Over the past 20 years, many studies have looked at the correlation between the rising rates of obesity and the declining funding for physical activity, whether in a gym class or after-school sports, in high schools. Young people generally get less physical activity the older they get, but if they stay involved in sports programs, they’re more likely to reap the physical benefits they otherwise would not receive. This certainly helps alleviate one of the factors that can lead to obesity.
Not only does the physical activity help obesity prevention, but that activity can lead to better eating habits. Young people involved in physical activity generally consume more fruits and vegetables, are less likely to be overweight and are more likely to become physically active adults. (Taliaferro, 2010) One good habit can lead to many good habits, so keeping young people physically active is imperative for their overall health.
Social Benefits
Teen girls tend to see the greater social benefits of competing in team sports. The physical activity combined with the camaraderie and purpose lead to a winning combination for girls. “Girls who compete in sports get better grades, graduate at higher rates and have more confidence. The vast majority avoid unplanned pregnancies, drugs, obesity, depression and suicide.”
(Anderson, 2012)
The Taliaferro study marked a number of positive social benefits of physical activity, including less risky sexual behavior (increased condom use and fewer sexual partners) and fewer tendencies to smoke cigarettes or use marijuana or other illegal drugs. Although, these behaviors varied among racial groups and gender.
The social benefits can also lead to academic benefits. Physical activity is shown to lead to better academic performance, and when your team is performing better, on the court and in the classroom, it adds an incentive for the individual players to do better. Participating on a team or as an individual can also help young people improve problem-solving skills, which translate to better academic performance.
Emotional Benefits
Another study in the Journal of School Health called “Physical Activity Behaviors and Perceived Life Satisfaction Among Public High School Adolescents” looked at high school students in South Carolina and how physical activity is linked to their overall life satisfaction. The study took into account exercise for 20 minutes, exercising in gym class, playing on a school sports team, stretching and other factors. Overall, the study found benefits of school-based sports in all groups, especially white females.
“It appears reasonable to suggest that for White females, playing on a sport team, especially one at school, appears to be protective. Playing on sport teams may enhance school connectedness, social support and bonding among friends and teammates for White females, and may have greater value compared to regular exercise. For males (Black and White) it appears that regular exercise, stretching exercises, actually exercising in PE class, and playing on a sport team at school are protective for improved quality of life (perceived life satisfaction). For males, building endurance, stretching, and strength training (White males) may be more important mentally and physically for competitive sports at school and for overall mental health.” (Valois, 2004)
It’s not just girls who reap the social, physical, and emotional benefits from exercise. Generally, it is shown that physical activity has numerous benefits to teen participants.
“A growing body of literature suggests a relationship between PA (Physical Activity) and improved mental well-being for adolescents. Participation in PA (exercise) for teens was associated with decreased anxiety and depression and improved
improved parental relationships, increased self-esteem, decreased
lower levels of me reduced tobacco, alcohol, and satisfaction with mandatory gym classes in school” (Valois, 2004)
Taken the other way, not getting enough exercise, in school or otherwise, can lead to depression, anxiety, and lower interest in school and academics.
Unfortunately, physical activity decreases throughout a young person’s time in school. “Participation in vigorous physical activity for at least 20 minutes 3 days per week decreases from 69% among adolescents aged 12 to 13 years to 38% among those aged 18 to 21 years.” (Valois, 2004) This could be due to a number of factors throughout the young person’s life, but parents and teachers should continue to encourage young people to stay active to increase their quality of life.
The Bigger Picture
How can schools best use this information? With budget cuts across the board in many school districts, administrators must make decisions that will benefit the short-term and long-term well-being of their students. If the school thinks they have to trade phys ed or sports in order to get better test scores, they may be heading down the wrong path. As we’ve seen throughout this article, “Physical activity can be added to the school curriculum without academic consequences and also can offer physical, emotional, and social benefits.” (Story, 2009) Sports programs are good for the individual and the whole.
It can be difficult for schools to make decisions regarding funding, especially when test scores decrease. But if administrators can keep the big picture in mind, and factor in how the many benefits of physical activity and sports programs can help students, the good test scores will follow. According to the Taliaferro study, “Identifying a factor, such as sport participation, that correlates with reduced involvement in multiple health risk behaviors among adolescents represents a significant contribution to health policy and practice, particularly given the limited resources available to promote positive health behaviors.” (Taliaferro, 2010) When these positive health behaviors combine with improved academic performance, as noted in the Valois study, it seems clear that educators should prioritize youth sports as a win-win situation for the school and for students.
Works Cited
Anderson, K. (2012, May 7). The Power of Play. Sports Illustrated, pp. 44-63.
Story, M. N. (2009). Schools and Obesity Prevention: Creating School Environments and Policies to Promote Healthy Eating and Physical Activity. Milbank Quarterly, 71-100.
Taliaferro, L. A. (2010). Relationships Between Youth Sport Participation and Selected Health Risk Behaviors From 1999 to 2007. Journal of School Health, 399-410.
Valois, R. Z. (2004). Physical Activity Behaviors and Perceived Life Satisfaction Among Public High School Adolescents. Journal of School Health, 59-65.
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Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.DEBATE ON THE ADDRESS (Hansard, 12 March 1974)
DEBATE ON THE ADDRESS
HC Deb 12 March 1974 vol 870 cc48-180
[FIRST DAY]
Before I call the mover and seconder of the Address, I think that it will be for the assistance of the House if I indicate what has been suggested to me as the pattern for the debate.
During the debate tomorrow, the main speeches will relate to on Thursday, to ag on Friday, to social se and on Monday, to the economic situation.
I beg to move, That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, as follows:
Most Gracious Sovereign,
We, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in Parliament assembled, beg leave to offer our humble thanks to Your Majesty for the Gracious Speech which Your Majesty has addressed to both Houses of Parliament.
To move the Address in response to the Gracious Speech is an honour for both the Member and his constituency. To do so on this occasion is even more so, since we meet for the first time as a newly enlarged Parliament in what can only be described as abnormal circumstances. On behalf of my constituency of Northfield, I acknowledge the honour. By a strange twist of fate, this honour has fallen to my constituency on the fiftieth anniversary of the return to Parliament of the City of Birmingham's first Labour Member of Parliament for none other than the area that I now represent.
You, Mr. Speaker, and Members of the last Parliament will recall many occasions on which, at Question Time, I extended to the then Prime Minister, now Leader of the Opposition, invitations to pay an official visit to Northfield. You will, no doubt, recall also the total predictability of his reply—"I have at present no plans to do so". I confess that not all those invitations were completely genuine, so I was never surprised with the replies. However, I did retain that ray of hope of which only back benchers are capable, and I thought that on one occasion or another he would say "Yes" and then visit one of the
country's vital and most hard-working communities.
The constituency of Northfield lies at the south-western tip of Birmingham, astride the main Birmingham to Bristol road. It cannot be described as an area of great scenic beauty or flush with buildings of historic interest and charm, for it is an urban area which, with the exception of the village of Northfield, has come into existence over the past 40 or 50 years. We have no great claim to fame, nor do we seek it. We simply allow, as Birmingham and the Black Country have done for centuries, the products of our labour to speak for themselves.
Northfield is an area of much religious activity, dominated by the Quakers and Methodism until the Second World War. It now embraces at least a dozen varieties of the Christian Church. Rarely a week goes by without my receiving a petition from one or a combination of these churches on social or moral issues. It is reassuring, in an age when we are preoccupied with materialism and the pursuit of affluence, to be asked to address meetings about world poverty in the heart of Britain's major industrial region.
Although it is an industrial community, it is an industrial community with only three factories in it. One of them employs over 25,000 people, and dominates not just Northfield but the whole economic life of the West Midlands. That factory is owned by British Leyland, and it produces both the bane and the bounty of the twentieth century—the motor car. Last year, it produced 170,000 cars to a value of approximately £100 million. One half of that production was exported, earning vital foreign exchange. It is a fact which is well understood, but for those who lead sheltered and uninformed lives it is worth repeating that those who transport themselves in anything but a British Leyland car are missing quite the finest experience known to motorised man.
Many of my constituents are employed at the Cadbury factory, where, the House will not be surprised to hear, the world's finest chocolate is made. It seems that almost everything we turn our hand to in Northfield produces excellent results. But my constituency is dominated by the car industry, and those who know it will for-
give me for concentrating upon it, although they will know also that, at the same time, I am speaking for industry generally.
The reference in the Gracious Speech to industrial relations, in particular to the repeal of the , is of great interest to both sides of industry in my constituency. It is to be hoped that the experiences of the past few years will make it more, rather than less, possible to promote good relationships at the places of work.
However, it would be wrong to suppose that there is available a magic cure that will erase disputes from the industrial face of Britain. Indeed, one is entitled to question the proposition that the complete removal of conflict from industrial life will speed us on the road to economic paradise where social harmony is assured.
The industrial workers of my constituency are part of the oldest industrialised community on earth. Neither they, management, nor the factories they work in can be compared with the new and modern industrial communities in Japan, France, or Germany. Our total experience is different. Yet change is essential if we are to maintain our standard of living and full employment.
However, the problems that confront us are not all economic in origin. The industrial workers of my constituency have never had an easy relationship with the machine. Their intuitive response to mechanisation has always been cautious, and in recent years there has arisen throughout our whole community—indeed, the whole Western world—a suspicion that the age of the machine has not entirely lived up to expectations, that for many it has taken away both time and space although greater freedom was promised. The car industry is on the very frontiers of industrial advance and as a consequence is subject to the pressures that inevitably stem from such suspicions.
These were perhaps best summed up by the late and great American trade union leader, Walter Reuther, after he had been shown an entirely new automated engine factory by a Ford executive who said to him, "You will not be able to collect any union dues from all those automated machines", and Mr. Reuther
replied, "That is not
what is bothering me is how are you going to sell cars to all those machines."
Such fears may or may not be well founded. What is certain, however, is that they play a major part in the performance of industry. My constituents will therefore be particularly pleased with that part of the Gracious Speech that refers to the intention to bring into existence a new conciliation and arbitration service.
It hardly needs to be said by me—for it is self-evident—that the remainder of the Gracious Speech will receive the overwhelming support of Parliament. Responsible yet radical, with a strong Celtic flavour, there is something in it for everyone. The smallest minority has a right to feel satisfied.
The leader of the Liberal Party said on your day of installation, Mr. Speaker, that we were all minorities now. The truth is, however, that we have always been so. In the past, it has simply been the case that loyalties and common interests have been the binding forces that have produced cohesive major groupings. It should be the objective of this Parliament and this Government once again to make it possible for those loyalties and understandings to flourish, and for that great British quality of compromise to regain its position in every aspect of our national life.
If we are patient and tolerant with one another, there is no reason why that cannot be achieved. Already there is a feeling of hope and an indication that when the country hears of the Government's programme, confidence will return and the past will be left behind. It is because of that and my belief that we have a wise Government sensitive to the needs of the hour that I have felt honoured to move this motion today.
It is a great pleasure to second the remarks of my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Northfield (Mr. Carter), particularly because he is a fellow sponsored Transport and General Workers' Union Member of Parliament and a fellow member of the light cavalry of the Parliamentary Labour Party, the Tribune group.
This is also an honour because, as far as I know, this is the first occasion on which a Member of Parliament for Bedwellty has been called upon to second the motion, not, I am sure, because of any lack of suitability or talent on the part of my predecessors—both Charles Edwards and Harold Finch had distinguished records—but because the right hon. and hon. Gentlemen who have had the task of replying on previous occasions probably have been mortified by the thought of having to pronounce Bedwellty properly. With two Welsh Nationalists in this Parliament and several of my right hon. and hon. Friends having taken the oath in Welsh, clearly the pressure is even greater on this occasion. However, the right hon. Member for Sidcup (Mr. Heath) we have become well acquainted with his personal courage.
Bedwellty is not Welsh by language, although Welsh by character and by temperament. We have all the essentials of Welsh valley life—clubs and choirs and chapels, and a 22,000 Labour majority. We are also situated in the Bible belt of rugby football. In the 15 towns and villages that make up the constitutency there is also the unique quality of life in South Wales, and that is a competitive self-sufficiency in each of those communities of such a degree as to make Marshal Chauvin seem to be like Florence Nightingale.
In those communities in recent days we have had a mixture of great joy and deep anguish. Among the 3,000 coal miners in my constituency, their wives, disabled comrades and former workmates who have left the industry to seek health and reasonable pay, there has been great rejoicing at the dawn of justice that broke for the miners of Britain as recently as last week.
Until yesterday, in the homes of 2,000 steel workers there had been great impatience because of the lack of response to the trade union intiatives to resolve the lock-out at British Steel Corporation's Spencer Works in Llanwern, and I thought we should have to wait for the proposals of my dear neighbour my right hon. Friend the Member for Ebbw Vale (Mr. Michael Foot) for a conciliation and arbitration service to resolve the dispute. Fortunately, the two parties have
come together and, happily, work has restarted.
However, I am bound to reflect that if instead of our fruitless preoccupation in 1971 in this House with the
we had been concerned with introducing machinery for conciliation and arbitration, Britain would be several thousands tons of steel better off and my constituents would be several hundred pounds in pocket. But that Act is now to be butchered, and for that and many other reasons it is a unique pleasure for me to second the motion.
In addition, in one week of government the Labour administration have succeeded in keeping more promises and have shown more fidelity to principle and manifesto than practically any Government within living memory. Fidelity will be strange to some hon. Members. That impetus must be maintained, otherwise we shall have the responsiblity of office without having the power of office. That0020would be a most undemocratic and dangerous situation. So I hope we shall maintain the momentum and show that we are not prepared to be persuaded by any tales from Montgomery, Rochdale or Cornwall, North, because this greyhound will stay on course.
Another reason for welcoming the plan that has been presented to us is that it is a blueprint for democratic Socialism. The food subsidies, the housing plans, the urban development proposals and the consumer protection proposals encompass the realities of working-class life. By our practical proposals for the old, the sick and the disabled we show our compassion and our Socialism. We show it, too, in our determination to universalise the best in education and in our determination to apply to the maximum benefit this country's natural resources, to the use, and profit of the community.
But the Queen's Speech is not only S it is also profoundly democratic. In a democracy, in order to attain the assent of organised labour to the planned and orderly growth of wages, we must advance social and economic justice. When we do that the contract is joined and we can be sure that those workers who see rents frozen, food prices subsidised and better pensions being paid will respond to the initiatives of a democratic Government. The compact is based on the fun-
damental of democracy, mutuality and consent, and that is what makes the whole plan democratic.
But more profoundly and instantly we have the undertaking fundamentally to renegotiate the terms of entry to the Common Market and to submit that renegotiation for the judgment of the British people. We thereby give our democracy reality and resilience. We convey to people that when they put a cross on a ballot paper they are influencing their destiny, the destiny of their country and the destiny of their children. That is the fundamental rock on which our democracy must be based.
But there is something for everyone in the Queen's Speech, not least the penultimate paragraph which refers to the consideration of
… the provision of financial assistance to enable Opposition parties more effectively to fulfil their Parliamentary functions.
This proves, if proof were needed, that the Labour Party is the most fair-minded party in the country. [Laughter.] Hon. Gentlemen opposite may laugh, but when in the town halls the Labour Party is victorious by one seat and we have a Labour mayor, just to show how fair-minded he is, he always votes with the Tories. When the Conservatives have a majority of one, to show how fair he is, the Conservative mayor always votes with the Tories.
It is on that basis of fair-mindedness, though not necessarily with their practical application in the delicate and sensitive matter of votes in this Parliament, that I warmly commend the Government's proposals.
I know that the whole House would like me to offer its warmest congratulations to the hon. Members for Birmingham, Northfield (Mr. Carter) and Bedwellty (Mr. Kinnock) on what I think all former Members will agree have been two of the most attractive and effective speeches that we have heard made for this purpose in recent years.
The hon. Member for Northfield reminded me, although I assure him that I needed no reminder, of his assiduity in looking after the interests of Birmingham and the West Midlands during the
time when I was Prime Minister. Although I was unable to accept any of his, apparently, not entirely wholehearted invitations, I hope he will acquit me of any lack of interest by the support which I gave to the Exhibition Centre, because only six weeks ago we committed public money to the railways and communications for that centre. We all hope that the centre will be an enormous asset to Birmingham as well as to the nation.
The hon. Member for Northfield made a very thoughtful speech to which I think the House will wish to give consideration later when we are debating matters of this kind. Meantime, perhaps I can give what I assure him is a wholehearted and sincere invitation to the new Tory-held constituency of Bexley-Sidcup.
The speech of the hon. Member for Bedwellty also delighted us. One endeavours from time to time to find out the characteristics of those who are to move and second the motion for the Address. The one thing that grieves me as a musician is that I understand from my intense researches that in the land of song the hon. Member for Bedwellty is the only Labour representative in Parliament who is unable to sing.
That causes me regret, but he has replaced the omission today with a happy wit—at no time greater than when he was referring to the intention of the Government Front Bench to adhere in every respect to their manifesto at the earliest possible time. Fair minded and far sighted he described his right hon. and hon. Friends—fair minded in their policies, far sighted in making extra provision for those who go into opposition which I have no doubt that he and his right hon. and hon. Friends will appreciate in the near future.
It is customary on these occasions to express the hope on behalf of the House that the two hon. Gentlemen concerned will rapidly receive promotion at the hands of their Front Bench. I do so on this occasion, but if I should do so with any lack of conviction, let me assure both hon. Gentlemen that it is not due to any misunderstanding about how genuinely they deserve to ascend to the Front Bench: it is only from a certitude that the amount of time available will be quite inadequate. However, when one sees the speed with which a Parliamen-
tary Secretary to the Civil Service Department can be promoted to a Minister of State in less than a week, with an equivalent promotion in salary, even that may be too pessimistic a forecast. Finally, some of us have known the tendency in a new Parliament for the Government to reproduce at least part of their election speeches and the fact that on this occasion they have been able to resist that temptation earns the Opposition's wholehearted gratitude.
I have already offered to the Prime Minister our congratulations that he should assume the responsibilities of first Minister of State. On behalf of the House, I should also like to add our congratulations to the other hon. Gentlemen who are taking part in the new administration. The Opposition recognise that the Prime Minister and his colleagues face a grave and heavy responsibility and that they will have difficult decisions to take. It is a matter of history, perhaps that they, in our view, failed to face up to the facts of the situation in opposition, but now we realise that they have hard decisions facing them in government. They are a minority Government—quite different from 1950 and 1964 when, although the majority was small, it was an overall majority—and a minority Government is something which no one in the House has hitherto experienced.
The Government have no mandate for the extreme programmes put forward in their manifesto. They have to face the fact that there is no mandate for any particular programme at all. They are not in a position to say that they have the overriding force to carry through a programme which a democratic mandate normally provides in our country.
So every measure put forward has to be debated and argued and agreed on its merits. In this House, where the Government have a lead over the other of the larger parties, each measure has to he argued, and it has to be defended in the country where the Government are in a minority of votes compared with the other large party.
In this situation there are two courses open to the Government. The first is to accept the heavy responsibility of governing in these dif to deal with the grave issues facing the
country, and to do so in a way which majority opinion in the House and in the country will accept as fair and right. I can assure the hon. Gentleman and his colleagues that if the Government choose to do that, they need expect no fractious opposition from my right hon. and hon. Friends and myself.
The alternative is to avoid the real and deep-seated issues facing this country today. In the last administration, we tried to tackle them, very often—I must say this to the right hon. Gentleman—with sustained opposition from his own party at the time. Avoiding the real issues means going for short-term popularity in the hope of being able to get support later for issues which may then appear to the present administration to be more important.
It is in the light of those two alternatives, I suggest, that we look at the Queen's Speech. I think that the House will agree that immediately one encounters two difficulties. First, we must consider it without any knowledge of the Government's financial policies, because we have to await the Budget in a fortnight's time before we know the Chancellor's intentions. This, therefore, places an immediate limitation on us. Second, so much of the Queen's Speech on this occasion is drafted, even for a Queen's Speech, in such a convoluted fashion that it requires persistent probing to ascertain what lies behind so much of its wording.
But I welcome wholeheartedly the legislation mentioned in the Queen's Speech which is being taken over from the previous administration, in particular, the consumer protection measures, which we have all regarded as of great importance. I ask, however, about one phrase in the Queen's Speech—
a measure … to require goods where appropriate, to be labelled with the price at which they are to be sold".
Is that an indirect way of saying that the Government propose to return to resale price maintenance? The consequences of that, I believe, would not be helpful to any prices policy which they are trying to pursue, for the simple reason that it would mean that, in order to help those with smaller businesses, prices would have to be maintained at a level quite unjustifiable for larger businesses, so that consumers would immediately lose the advantages of large-scale marketing from
which they have benefited in the past decade.
The Government propose also to take over the measures on unit pricing, health and safety at work, adoption and equal status for women, which were ready for introduction as a result of the last Queen's Speech.
I welcome the continuing of a bipartisan policy on Northern Ireland. We have previously acknowledged the support which we received from the right hon. Gentleman and the then Opposition in pursuing our own policy of reconciliation in Northern Ireland and endeavouring to bring violence to an end. I assure the right hon. Gentleman the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland of our support for policies with the same objective.
Northern Ireland presented one of the gravest problems which faced the last administration, and, perhaps with modest pride, I can say that we faced it with resolution and steadfastness. The outcome has been a policy of conciliation—conciliation between the two communities expressed in the Northern Ireland Executive, conciliation between North and South and between the Republic and the United Kingdom expressed in the Sunningdale agreement.
Of course, we have always recognised that 400 years of history cannot be brushed aside or forgotten in four months. But the fact that we did reach an understanding at all is, I have always thought, a remarkable achievement. We must recognise that the understanding is fragile, but it is one of which we can be proud, and we on this side have no intention of casting that aside.
I ask Her Majesty's Government to remain resolute in dealing with men of violence and to endeavour to reassure those in Northern Ireland, and perhaps in this House, who have doubts about the policies which we have been pursuing with their support, and which they intend to pursue in the future, and to reassure them that these policies are in the interests of both communities, allowing each to safeguard what it holds dear and at the same time to co-operate over what they have in common. This, I believe, is the key to the policies of conciliation which are essential in Northern Ireland.
For our part, we shall continue to do the same. We shall support the Executive under Mr. Faulkner. We shall abide by the principles of co-operation expressed in the Sunningdale agreement. I therefore hope that it will be possible for the House to maintain a bipartisan policy towards the very difficult problems of Northern Ireland, in an endeavour to secure peace there.
There is one further matter in the Queen's Speech which I wish to welcome now. As early as the second paragraph, reality begins to break through. The second paragraph contains the words.
in the face of world-wide inflation.
Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles ! So there is world-wide inflation ! Foodstuffs, raw materials—up 50 per cent., 100 per cent., 200 per cent., 300 per cent., and oil up 400 per cent. At last, the right hon. Gentleman and his colleagues are prepared to recognise it. After all, it is not the responsibility of the last Conservative administration. Why could not the right hon. Gentleman and his hon. Friends have said so in opposition and enabled the trade union movement, employers and the whole nation to make a better judgment on our economic affairs?
The right hon. Gentleman agrees that there is world-wide inflation on an enormous scale, and he agrees, therefore, on the impact that this must have had on the balance of payments last year. He recognises also that, without this worldwide inflation, there would not have been a deficit on the balance of payments last year. Thus, now that he is faced with reality, within the first week we have the dawn of recognition of the real facts of life.
Then we are told of "far-reaching monetary disturbance". So floating the pound was right after all, with the beneficial consequences for our exports and the disadvantages for our imports. These monetary disturbances also are beyond the control of the United Kingdom Government. Why could not the right hon. Gentleman and his hon. Friends have said so when they were in opposition?
The price of oil is now a problem for the whole world—it was not just the fault of the Conservative administration—and the present Government are to co-operate with the producer countries. We welcome
this. It is what we ourselves have been doing. I congratulate the right hon. Gentleman the new Foreign Secretary on the new Labour policy for the Middle East. I congratulate him most sincerely, because he has taken over the policy which we ourselves pursued. Of course, he must try to reach agreements in order to safeguard oil supplies, as we did, and his task would be considerably easier were it not for a good many other things said by his leader when he was sitting on the opposition benches. But I assure him that we shall support him in a balanced policy in the Middle East.
I turn now to other aspects of the Gracious Speech. I have said that we must consider the Gracious Speech in the light of whether it deals with the basic problems facing this country, or whether it seeks immediate satisfaction from the voters. It is apparent that many of the "goodies" have been put in the shop window with immediate appeal, regardless of the ultimate consequences. Increased food subsidies—to what extent we do not know. The freezing of rents, regardless of the consequences for those who are less fortunate and who then have to subsidise the better off, and regardless of the impact in increasing the rates. We are told that there are to be increased retirement pensions and greatly increased social service benefits. We have all been working with the CBI and the TUC towards improved pensions and improved social service benefits, and considerable improvements have been made.
At this point, I wish to recall to the new Chancellor of the Exchequer the experience of his right hon. Friend the present Foreign Secretary in 1964, when, abandoning a gradual and progressive improvement in social service benefits and pensions, he took one large step which made an enormous impact on the demand aspect of economic management and proved to have a considerable impact on confidence overseas. However tempting it may be for us to attempt to make an enormous step forward in pensions and social service benefits rather than a steady advance, I ask him to consider that temptation in the light of the impact on the demand management of the economy and the impact overseas.
The other half of the Labour Party's manifesto has been kept carefully under wraps. I do not want to explore it today
but it is clear that a mass of nationalisation proposals have been omitted. I suggest to the right hon. Gentleman, particularly so far as North Sea oil—[HON. MEMBERS: "Scottish oil."]—is concerned, where the references are so imprecise as to preclude judgment, that he should introduce certainty at the earliest possible moment. Uncertainty of any kind about industries specified by the Prime Minister and his colleagues will be damaging to investment, and, in connection with North Sea Oil—[HON. MEMBERS: "Scottish oil."]—immensely damaging to the future. The right hon. Gentleman should remove that uncertainty. If he has now recoiled from the nationalisation of North Sea oil, let him say so straight away.
I hope, however, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer will be prepared to go ahead with the proposals announced to Parliament by my right hon. Friend the former Chancellor of the Exchequer concerning the matter of the artificial offsetting of losses against profits by the oil companies, and with ensuring for this country a fair share of the proceeds of the offshore oil industry.
I want now to deal with three specific matters in the Gracious Speech. First, there is a promise
to seek a fundamental renegotiation of the terms of entry to the European Economic Community",
after which the result will be put to the British people, although there is no commitment in the Gracious Speech on how that will be done. According to the Secretary of State for Trade, this issue
towers above all the other matters debated in the election campaign.
Many of us might differ from him there, but it is justifiable to ask the Prime Minister to clarify what he intends to do, because so far as this House is concerned he is in a minority on this issue.
The Prime Minister will find it very easy to abandon a good many of the pledges that he made in the election campaign. There was, for example, the pledge to bring in cheap New Zealand food. Having been in office for 10 days, he will now have discovered that there is no cheap New Zealand food to be brought in. There was a pledge to bring in cheap Commonwealth cereals, but they are far more expensive than those in the Community. There is his anxiety about
negotiating for 1.4 million tons of sugar to be brought into the Community when, in fact, the problem facing us is how to persuade the Commonwealth to send any sugar here at all. The right hon. Gentleman knows that special arrangements have had to be made to increase the return to the Commonwealth countries in an endeavour to maintain supplies.
Gone, too, are all those splendid promises and easy solutions to our food problems, by using long-term, bulk-buying agreements, all painted in such glowing terms by the right hon. Gentleman during the election campaign. All of that has gone within the first week.
Now we have the question of renegotiating terms of entry into the Community. It is at least better to renegotiate within the Community than from without. Does not the right hon. Gentleman find it anomalous to renegotiate without participating in the institutions of the Community? Do the Government have it in mind now to send Members to the European Parliament at Strasbourg? That would seem to be the least that the Government could do as a token of their genuine concern about renegotiation as opposed to withdrawal from the European Community. Successful or not, however, the Government are committed to putting it through a General Election or through a consultative referendum.
Let us examine this issue before it becomes a most contentious matter. If the issue were to be put at a General Election, the aftermath would be that this House would assemble with a wide variety of views being held among Members, and in that respect it would be no different from when the last vote was taken, when there was a wide variety of views in the House and a majority of 112 for going into Europe. Alternatively, there would be a consultative referendum which would be in no way binding upon the House in any decision it took. [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] With great respect, how can a consultative referendum be binding upon the House of Commons?
Therefore, whatever the right hon. Gentleman may say, either in Brussels or in this House, the ultimate decision would again rest with the Members of the House, who could not be tied in the decision which they took. Therefore, this is a
bogus argument about the sovereignty of this House. We should find that eventually once again any decision which had to be taken would be taken by Members of this House.
The second matter to which I wish to refer as a theme through the Queen's Speech is the massive programme of Government expenditure which is involved. One has only to look at the list to see the extent to which the Government may be embarking upon this. I have already mentioned pensions and other social security benefits, rent subsidies, food subsidies to an extent unknown, house building, land purchase, regional development, the National Health Service, education, public transport and overseas aid. This, by any test, unless it is meaningless, is an expansion, and a considerable expansion, of Government expenditure. Some of it may be desirable in any circumstances except those which the nation faces today. Others, in our view, would be undesirable in any circumstances. How is this expenditure to be met without damaging investment in industry or damaging exports or through heavy indirect—[Interruption.] I will say a word about that to the hon. Member for Feltham and Heston (Mr. Kerr) in a moment—or direct taxation, putting additional pressure on demands for wages? This is another of the hard facts of life which the right hon. Gentlemen and, in particular, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer have to face.
Mr. Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) rose——
The hon. Member for Feltham and Heston said, if I heard him correctly, that it would come from defence. If this is so, we should like to know immediately how much of our defence will be wrecked in order to meet programmes of this kind. If there is to be £1,000 million coming from defence, then, in the course of this debate, the House should be told either by the Prime Minister or some other senior Minister how defence will be affected in order to raise the revenue for this expenditure programme.
On a point of correction, what I said to the right hon. Gentleman was that we should make a start with £500
million from the surtax concessions given by his right hon. Friend the previous Chancellor.
In fact, the action which the hon. Gentleman is saying to his right hon. Friend that he can take—and the figures on which it is based are extremely dubious—will provide the right hon. Gentleman with a major question of demand management, because the expenditure will go out in demand for goods, and what he will take from those with higher incomes will come very largely from savings. This is another of the problems which the right hon. Gentleman will have to face.
The third aspect of the Queen's Speech with which I wish to deal is studiously vague—the Government's proposals on incomes policy. I must ask the Prime Minister: what is the Government's policy on incomes? It is essential not only for this House and Parliament but for everyone in industry to know what is the Government's present policy. An incomes policy is, in our view, vital for dealing with inflation. This is a field over which so much of the General Election was fought and it still remains at the centre of our economic affairs.
The hon. Member for Northfield spoke sincerely and seriously about the need for conciliation and arbitration. I would not differ from him in any respect, except that what he is overlooking is that the means of conciliation and arbitration already exist in many forms. They have not been used—[HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."]—and that has not been the fault either of the Government or of employers. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, who cheers so loudly, might look at the situation which governed the question of the three railway unions for so many months. Arbitration and conciliation are there to be used, but they have not been used by many of the unions for a long time.
The real point to which I would ask the House to give attention is that arbitration which consists only of splitting the difference in a negotiation in which one side moves and the other remains firmly placed is no means of conducti nor will it contribute anything of good to the right hon. Gentleman's own economic management. This is one of the basic points in relation to an incomes policy.
The miners' settlement was made, apparently, without regard to the relativities report. It is widely reported that the Secretary of State said, "This can be dismissed and thrown out of the window." At the same time every impression was given to the unions that stage 3 no longer existed and that the Pay Board was about to be abolished. Thus, both stage 3 and the relativities report were broken and have gone. This is what the unions now believe.
Can the Prime Minister say exactly what is the position? Is stage 3 still in existence? Is the relativities report, having been thrown out of the window, to be considered of importance or not? Are there to be further references so far as relativities are concerned? If stage 3 is now abolished and does not exist, what is the position of the 6 million workers who settled under it in the belief that others in the community would adhere to it for the next year of negotiations? Are they now entitled to renegotiate or are they to see others successfully grasping for higher awards and find themselves unable to do anything about it?
Will the Prime Minister tell us this: is the Pay Board to be kept, despite all the damaging opposition to it of his own party when in opposition? Is it to be kept, in breach of the promises that he gave to the electorate only ten days ago, or is it to be abolished? If so, is anything to take its place? Is it to be abolished before any other effective policy has been worked out? If it is, in this process it is the lower
it is the weaker members of the community who will be further damaged and who have no means of redressing their situation, because they do not have the strength of union representation which others have.
I have long believed—and I told the last House on many occasions—that it is essential that we in this country should develop a more rational way of dealing with these matters. Again, I listened attentively to what the hon. Member for Northfield said, that he does not believe, in effect, that this process can be achieved. I do not share his pessimism. I believe that a great deal had already been achieved. I believe that, if the right hon. Gentleman and his hon. Friends had supported what was a genuine attempt to find a
more sensible way of dealing with the problems, we could have had even greater success.
But what is important now is for the Prime Minister to clarify the Government's incomes policy and the institutions by which it will operate. What do they believe incomes should be this year? In the Queen's Speech they speak of
… methods of securing the orderly growth of incomes on a voluntary basis.
We have all wanted a binding voluntary agreement, but is this to be an orderly growth of money incomes alone or an orderly growth of real incomes, and by what means will the right hon. Gentleman ensure an orderly growth of real incomes?
We have seen that the right hon. Gentleman and his hon. Friends will seek to repeal the . That is part of their manifesto and part of their dogma—[An HON. MEMBER: "And CBI policy."] With great respect, it is not the policy of the CBI. On any rational approach, what the Government should consider is an amendment of the Act where it can be shown to be genuinely desirable. But if they mean that there should be no framework of law on industrial relations but merely conciliation and arbitration, then they will in no sense be able to achieve a proper working relationship in industry between unions and employers.
At the last election, I think that the British people showed themselves, quite rightly, resentful of the impact of inflation, whether it came from outside or, as it did at one period, from inside this country, upon their ordinary everyday lives. What they did not show is that they are yet ready to take a firm stand behind the measures which are essential if there is to be a period in which inflation can be dealt with successfully in this country and in which there can be an orderly improvement of real incomes for all the people, but particularly those to whom we wish to give precedence—the lower paid and the pensioners. Until the British people show that they are prepared to take measures which are essential for that, the country will still be confronted with the basic problems of inflation.
In the grave situation which faces us, the Government are embarking on a public expenditure programme of considerable size. They have set out no
clear incomes policy in the Queen's Speech. Overseas inflation has at last been recognised as unavoidable because this country cannot insulate itself against it, but the net result of the Government's policy would appear to be to increase the threat of domestic inflation on top of world-wide inflation. We on this side must express grave doubts whether such a programme meets the national interest at this time. If those doubts are to be dispelled, it has to be done by the Prime Minister and his colleagues in this debate.
I understand that the views of the Liberal Members are that, if the Queen's Speech contains more than a tenth of the Labour Party manifesto, they will have the Government out in 24 hours. We were not proposing to approach the Queen's Speech in quite this arithmetical manner, but in any case it appears to me that there is rather more than a tenth of that manifesto in the speech. It may be that, after many years, my knowledge of procedure has become somewhat rusty, but I fail to see how 14 Members can bring the Government down, let alone do so in 24 hours.
Perhaps the Liberal Members are now recognising that it lay in their power to put a Labour Government into office and they did so. It does not lie in their power alone to get rid of that Government. They were offered participation in Government for the first time for 35 years and they declined, and it does not lie alone in their power now to retrieve the situation.
We shall judge this Government by the test of the national interest. We shall subject each item of policy to that test. Where the Government are found wanting by this test of the national interest, either in their general programme or on individual items of policy, we shall not hesitate to oppose them to the full extent of our power.
Although I do not propose to echo the tone of some of the passages in the speech of the right hon. Member for Sidcup (Mr. Heath), nor share what the House may regard as his somewhat backward-looking approach to the problems that the nation faces, I should like to join him in his tribute to my hon. Friends
the Members for Birmingham, Northfield (Mr. Carter) and Bedwellty (Mr. Kinnock).
My hon. Friend the Member for Northfield referred to successive invitations to the right hon. Gentleman to visit his constituency. I have been to Northfield many times. In common with other strangers to the area, I have spent some of the best, or worst, hours of my life trying to circumnavigate the re-routed one-way road system in that area. A situation may have arisen in which no one would have tabled a Question asking me to visit Northfield. In 1948, following the activities of the Boundaries Commission in my then constituency, I had a deputation from that area asking me to accept nomination for his constituency. I decided to stay on Merseyside. I am glad that I did. The House is glad, too. Otherwise we should not have had such a good speech moving the Address in reply to the Gracious Speech this afternoon.
My hon. Friend the Member for Bedwellty—I am sorry if I splashed the right hon. Gentleman the former Chancellor of the Exchequer. I have frequently visited the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Bedwellty, both during his incumbency and during that of his predecessor, our dear friend Harold Finch, respected on all sides of the House and now, I am sorry to say, mourning the recent loss of his wife. My hon. Friend has repeatedly asked me to his constituency. I have been there in both Government and Opposition. We all rejoice to see the number of factories that he was able to ask me to open, which had been started when Harold Finch was the Member.
After 1970 and up to last November I had the same privilege as the right hon. Gentleman the Leader of the Opposition of being first to compliment movers and seconders—in those days from the Conservative Party. With unerring instinct I forecast the early promotion of the mover in each case to the Treasury Bench. I was right in three cases out of four in 1970. In the fourth case there was, perhaps too little time for the prophesy to fulfil itself. It would be a little unusual if I were to indulge in similar prophesy after the speeches of my two hon. Friends, and certainly today I refrain from adding, as I did
about their predecessors, the view that their promotion would strengthen the Treasury Bench and weaken the back benches. It would be difficult for me to say that this early. But both have made their mark in the last Parliament, and I was encouraged to see the obvious impression that they made on the whole House by their thoughtfulness and their underlying social philosophy, a fundamental democratic philosophy.
Before I come to the contents of the Gracious Speech, I should like to mention one or two domestic parliamentary matters. The first is arrangements for Private Members' time on Bills and motions. My right hon. Friend the Leader of the House will propose that there should be 10½ Private Members' days before the Summer Recess, five for Bills and five-and-a-half for motions. Strictly, we need have provided only nine days, in accordance with the usual practice, but we recognise that back benchers may have lost some opportunities because of the General Election, and we have tried to compensate for that.
It will be a matter of regret in all parts of the House that some of the excellent Private Members Bills which were making progress in the concluding weeks of the last Session now have to die. So far as some of them are concerned, if they are not re-presented by hon. Members who may be successful in this Session's ballot, we may find that some will be adopted as Government Bills. One in particular, the Children's Bill which was introduced by my hon. Friend who is now the Member for Plymouth, Devonport (Dr. David Owen)—indeed, he is now a member of the administration—is being taken over by the Government as a basis for a similar Bill, and it is referred to in the Gracious Speech.
With regard to Supply time, I think that discussions are taking place through the usual channels. I think that my right hon. Friend the Chief Whip is probably prepared—he has not decided yet—not to ask the Conservative Party for the return of the two and a half Supply Days which it owed us from last Session.
It is the Government's intention, so far as possible, to give more time than has been normal in the past for debating some of the important measures set out in the Gracious Speech. This will make possible
fuller parliamentary consideration of those measures. It may also help to diminish the probability of having a three-line Whip every night, which I judge would not be conducive to the better conduct of parliamentary proceedings.
The right hon. Gentleman the Leader of the Liberal Party last week seized an early opportunity to paraphrase the words of a former distinguished Liberal, Sir William Harcourt, when he said that "we are all minorities now." Sir William Harcourt's original statement 80 years ago was
We are all Socialists now.
I am not sure whether the proceedings of this Parliament will confirm what Sir William Harcourt said, but certainly the Leader of the Liberal Party was correct in the short term. Her Majesty's Government, as well as every other party here, are not unaware of the consequences in parliamentary terms. The Government intend to treat with suitable respect, but not with exaggerated respect, the results of any snap vote or any snap Division. We all recognise the successes of past Oppositions, and those manoeuvres late at night in Lord North Street—as I happened to uncover in a short monograph which I wrote after I went into Opposition. But I do not think that they should be taken too seriously—they never have been—and, in any case, from Lord North Street I shall be able to keep a close watch on any manoeuvres that may be going on.
In case of a Government defeat, either in such circumstances or in a more clear expression of opinion, the Government will consider their position and make a definitive statement after due consideration. But the Government will not be forced to go to the country except in a situation in which every hon. Member in the House was voting knowing the full consequences of his vote.
I hope that we can make speedy progress also on another proposal in the Gracious Speech, which may be of help to non-Government parties in the House.
I suspect that the statement which the Prime Minister has made is of considerable significance, particularly to him. But will he kindly explain how he proposes to ascertain that every hon. Member of the House who was
voting was in full possession of his judgment?
I understand the right hon. Gentleman's somewhat frivolous mood about these matters. He did not always take very seriously a vote defeating his own Government in the House despite his supposedly adequate majority. What I am trying to say is that a snap Division or even, perhaps in some cases, a more substantial one—such as the right hon. Gentleman suffered on quite major matters—would not necessarily mean, and would not, indeed, immediately mean, any fundamental decision about the future of the Government or about a Dissolution. I am saying that if there were to be anything put to the House which could have those consequences, every hon. Member would have it explained to him in the House by the Government before he voted. We would do this, and I am assuming that every hon. Member, whether in the Conservative Party or in any other, would understand what would be said on that occasion.
Sir Harmar Nicholls
On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. The right hon. Gentleman the Prime Minister has referred to a procedural matter in this House which affects all of us. It ought to be expanded rather than left, otherwise we could be under a nasty misapprehension as regards our duty.
Order. That is not a point of order.
The hon. Gentleman——
I am sorry to interrupt the Prime Minister again, but this matter is obviously of great importance. Is he saying that no matter how major a question it is, if the Government themselves do not warn the House of Commons that they will resign afterwards, the Government will then refuse to resign? Is the right hon. Gentleman saying that no matter how major a matter we may consider it in the House, unless the Government gave a warning during the debate that it was a matter on which they would resign they would then not resign however the House voted?
The right hon. Gentleman has been a Member of the House for very many years. He knows the difference—[HON. MEMBERS: "Answer."] The right hon. Gentleman knows the difference between a snap Division—he knows the difference between a Division which was not a snap Division but a considered one, as he found a number of times—and a vote of confidence. It is a vote of confidence about which I am speaking. I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will understand that. It is perfectly simple.
Sir Harmar Nicholls
Will the right hon. Gentleman give way? [Interruption.]
Order. If the right hon. Gentleman does not give way, the hon. Member should not keep rising.
In other words, we shall provide a recount to help the hon. Member for Peterborough (Sir H. Nicholls) feel at home.
I hope that we shall make speedy progress also on another proposal in the Gracious Speech which should be of help to non-G namely, the provision of financial assistance to Opposition parties to help them in fulfilling their parliamentary functions. My right hon. Friend the Leader of the House will be prepared to discuss this matter as soon as individual parties have considered it, or, if desired, there could be informal discussions through the usual channels. I hope that we may get these facilities into operation in the very near future. No Government have anything to gain, and certainly the country has nothing to gain, from Opposition parties lacking the necessary facilities, financial and otherwise, for doing their job in the House.
As for the debate on the Address, the official Opposition have indicated their views on the main issues they would like to see debated day by day, and we await the terms of the amendment they may wish to put down. I had hoped that in the choice of subjects for debate there would have been an opportunity for my right hon. Friend the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary to deal with a subject which has been raised this afternoon by the Leader of the Opposition and which is very much in the minds of hon. M namely, Europe as well as
other major issues of international affairs. Since the Opposition, well within their rights, have not nominated foreign affairs or Europe as a subject for debate I have suggested discussions through the usual channels—and I hope these have taken place—in the hope that foreign affairs and related matters can be debated at the earliest opportunity, preferably next week.
Pending my right hon. Friend's comprehensive statement, which I had hoped he would be able to make this week, I repeat that the Government's policy will be exactly as we put it to the country. We shall enter into fundamental re-negotiation of the terms of entry into the EEC. When the negotiations are completed, however they have gone and whatever the outcome, the question of Britain's relations with the Community will be put to the British people—[HON. MEMBERS: "How?"]—and their decision will be final. [HON. MEMBERS: "How?"] I answered that question a hundred times during the General Election, and if hon. Members wish I will send them a copy of what I said. [HON. MEMBERS: "How?"] Through the ballot box, as I have said. [HON. MEMBERS: "How?"] I said almost certainly a referendum—[HON. MEMBERS: "Oh !"]—and I could conceive of circumstances in which there would be a General Election.
The economic situation, industry and inflation will be debated—[Interruption.] Hon. Members are very nervous, but they had better listen now and get used to things. As a result of the choice made by the Opposition, the economic situation, industry and inflation will be debated, all of these issues being very much in the minds of all hon. Members. I hope my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Employment and Prices and Consumer Protection will have the opportunity during these debates to outline the Government's position in these areas and answer some of the questions put by the Leader of the Opposition this afternoon.
On Northern Ireland, as the right hon. Gentleman generously said, we in Opposition gave the fullest support to the then Government in all the actions taken from the decision to introduce direct rule onwards. We gave full support to the
which was passed so overwhelmingly in th