In a debate about the steel industry on 28th October 2015 (HERE Column 373) Andrew Percy spoke about the risk that thousands of jobs in the UK steel industry would be lost. The Conservatives were coming under pressure to offer some sort of state aid to counter the cheap imports coming in from China.
I wish to make a similar point to that made by the hon. Member for Scunthorpe (Nic Dakin). Although the Secretary of State is right to point out that the steel industry halved under the last Labour Government, does he agree that it would be a cruel deception for anybody to suggest that the solution to this crisis is wholly in the hands of any one Government, be they the British Government or even the European Union?
Earlier, Angela Eagle MP pointed out that other EU countries were "much better able and more willing to support their strategic industries. I believe that is because they do not have the ideological qualms that this Government have about the idea of an industrial strategy".
As a Conservative Mr Percy, I assume, is ideologically against using government money to prop up failing industries and is quite happy to suggest nothing can be done. As a Eurosceptic he doesn't even blame the EU. He even says the problem goes beyond the government and even the EU - presumably he is thinking about the UN or perhaps God himself?
In September (15th) in a debate (HERE Column 1227) on the same topic he said:
In September (15th) in a debate (HERE Column 1227) on the same topic he said:
I would rather not worry about the EU at all, which is something on which my hon. Friend and I agree, although I am not sure the Minister or other Members agree. My hon. Friend is right. I was going to say something about that later. We tend to interpret rules and EU legislation very precisely; the insinuation is that other countries in Europe may be more flexible about that, so we should adopt the European approach—I do not say that very often—instead of our officialdom.
Is this not another admission that our problems (if indeed they are problems) about bureaucracy and red tape are made in Whitehall, not Brussels at all? If we are to take the arch Brexiteer Mr Percy at his word, we would actually be better integrating further with the EU and firing half of Whitehall. And to take the argument a bit further, if parliament cannot control Whitehall while we're inside the EU, how are they going to do it after we leave?
Is this not another admission that our problems (if indeed they are problems) about bureaucracy and red tape are made in Whitehall, not Brussels at all? If we are to take the arch Brexiteer Mr Percy at his word, we would actually be better integrating further with the EU and firing half of Whitehall. And to take the argument a bit further, if parliament cannot control Whitehall while we're inside the EU, how are they going to do it after we leave?
