Parliament
Lawler made his maiden speech on 22 July in a debate on regional industrial policy; he complained that Yorkshire had suffered from an inequality of treatment, but that the regional assistance in the manner provided since the second world war was inappropriate to contemporary needs. He did not support massive public intervention. After demanding an inquiry into under-employment, in late 1983 he called on the Government to abolish or privatise the Crown Agents. Lawler voted to reintroduce the death penalty for murderers of police or prison officers only, and against its reintroduction generally, in July 1983. In January 1985 he was one of 70 Conservative MPs to break the whip and vote to reject a planning inspectors' report supporting expansion of Stansted Airport.
In November 1984, his name was drawn as sixteenth in the annual ballot for twenty MPs to introduce a Private member's bill; he introduced the Fabric Origin Marking Bill which would require the country of origin to be indicated; his Bill made no progress. After the Bradford City stadium fire, he noted that the death toll would have been much worse had there been a fence in front of the stand to stop pitch invasions. He asked for money to be made available to build a new stand as quickly as possible.
Lawler spoke strongly in favour of televising the House of Commons in November 1985, arguing that if the public did not like what they saw, then Parliament should look to itselves to change. In July 1986 he owned up to leading a plot among backbench MPs to make sure there were enough present at 1 AM to vote to increase the allowances used to pay for secretaries and researchers by 50%. The Government had proposed an increase of only 6% and Mrs Thatcher complained the following day about the increase in the cost of Parliament. As vice-chairman of the Conservative backbench employment committee, he protested against comments by Lord Chief Justice Lord Lane who had called for lower sentences for people found to have committed benefit fraud; Lawler described Lane's comments as "an affront to all law-abiding people who declare their incomes and pay all their taxes, and equally to those who are honest claimants of social security and depend on it for their income".
Read more about this topic: Geoffrey Lawler
Famous quotes containing the word parliament:
“Undershaft: Alcohol is a very necessary article. It heals the sick—Barbara: It does nothing of the sort. Undershaft: Well, it assists the doctor: that is perhaps a less questionable way of putting it. It makes life bearable to millions of people who could not endure their existence if they were quite sober. It enables Parliament to do things at eleven at night that no sane person would do at eleven in the morning.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“What is the historical function of Parliament in this country? It is to prevent the Government from governing.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)