I say, without fear of contradiction, that the machine-tool situation is extremely serious at the present moment, and that if we go on as we are - I say this in all seriousness - we shall be faced with a far more serious main- Tins Crisis than we were faced with during the last war.
now we are having a Tin Crisis.
My right hon. Friend will have heard the Prime Minister say during Question Time in reply to a question from the hon. Member for Truro (Mr. Penhaligon) that the Government feel unable to make a statement on the Tin Crisis until the meeting of the International Tin Council comes to a decision.
My hon. Friend is right to be concerned about the Tin Crisis.
I want to achieve an application of the collective mind of the Department of Trade and Industry to the Tin Crisis, which affects my county and parts of London, instead of the other difficulty that has received a considerable amount of publicity this week.
Negotiations to reach a settlement of the Tin Crisis are in progress and the Government are doing everything they can to ensure the best deal possible to enable orderly trading in tin to resume.
It is especially unfortunate that the breakdown of negotiations has come at a time when substantial progress had been made towards resolving the Tin Crisis in an orderly fashion.
The Government regret that the protracted negotiations between the International Tin Council and its bank and broker creditors have now broken down without reaching agreement to resolve the Tin Crisis.
10, for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration, namely, the Tin Crisis in Cornwall, particularly the suspension of mining at Geevor".
On the Whole Tin Crisis the Committee said that if the Government waits for the tin price to settle before taking action, there will be no tin industry left in Cornwall".
Bearing in mind the fact that my right hon. Friend is aware that over two weeks ago the Select Committee on Trade and Industry published a unanimous report on the Tin Crisis, will he persuade his right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry to come to the House next week to reply to that report and tell the House what the Government will do to help the Cornish tin miners, before there are none left?
May I remind the Leader of the House that, next week, it is six months since the Tin Crisis started.
I realise that the Tin Crisis continues to be a lively concern in the House.
In underlining the pleas already made from both sides of the House for a debate next week or as soon as possible on the Tin Crisis, can I ask my right hon. Friend to bear in mind the extreme urgency of the position, brought home by laying off workers in the Geevor mine in my constituency and the shadow that that has cast over the whole industry in Cornwall?
However, the question of a debate should turn upon the fact that the Select Committee on Trade and Industry has produced a report on the Tin Crisis which the Government are considering.
Does the Ministerremember that the Select Committee condemned the Government for giving a warning of the Impending Tin Crisis in such imprecise terms as to be worthless?
I underline the pleas made by my hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton (Mr. Maxwell-Hyslop) and by the right hon. Member for Bethnal Green and Stepney (Mr. Shore) on the Tin Crisis and the urgent need for a debate.
Will my right hon. Friend give more details about the debate on Monday week on the Tin Crisis?
Before I turn to the question of the conduct of the Government in the Tin Crisis, I shall tell the House the background to this debate.
I beg to move,That this House endorses the Government's response (HC 457) to the Second Report from the Trade and Industry Committee on the Tin Crisis (HC 305-1); regrets the difficulties brought upon the Cornish tin industry, the International Tin Council's creditors and others as a result of the failure of the International Tin Council to reach agreement with its creditors, despite the considerable efforts made by the Government, and welcomes the Government's package of measures to help employment in Cornwall.
I think that the House will agree that the events in the Tin Crisis have been traumatic for all those concerned - those in Cornwall, those outside Cornwall, those in the tin industry itself, and the communities concerned with tin production.
I beg to move, to leave out from "House" to the end of the Question and to add instead thereof:rejects as utterly inadequate the Government's response (HC 457) to the Second Report from the Trade and Industry Committee on the Tin Crisis (HC 305–1); notes that the Select Committee highlights inherent faults of the International Tin Agreement which made it 'catastrophe prone'; considers that the Government failed to monitor these faults and so contributed to the failure of the International Tin Council and thereby to the consequential collapse of tin prices, to enormous losses by Tin Council creditors, to the closure of Geevor Mine and to the severe threat to the whole Cornish tin industry; and dismisses as derisory and pathetic the Government's so-called package of measures to combat unemployment in Cornwall.
The Tin Crisis and the tin industry are unique.
I regret that so much of the time of the House tonight has been spent on sterile and caustic remarks about the Government's conduct during the Tin Crisis.
I wish to speak about the Tin Crisis which is affecting my county.
I realise that the Trade and Industry Select Committee investigating the Tin Crisis found it unsatisfactory that its investigation had to be carried out under that constraint.
The Tin Crisis has almost become a traditional subject of interest to the Select Committee on Trade and Industry,of which I have the honour to be Chairman.
) On 7 July 1986 it was resolved, "That this House endorses the Government's response (HC 457) to the Second Report from the Trade and Industry Committee on the Tin Crisis (HC 305–1); regrets the difficulties brought upon the Cornish tin industry, the International Tin Council's creditors and others as a result of the failure of the International Tin Council to reach agreement with its creditors, despite the considerable efforts made by the Government, and welcomes the Government's package of measures to help employment in Cornwall".
When the scheme was announced, redundancy notices had been issued to the 760 employees who remained at the two mines out of 1,000 or so employed at the start of the Tin Crisis.
Here in Parliament, the Select Committee on Trade and Industry investigated the Tin Crisis.
The tin price has yet to recover from the Tin Crisis of 1986 when the price dropped from over £9,000 per tonne to just over £4,000 per tonne.