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    Bob Spink MP's latest Parliamentary speeched

    Bob Carried out many tasks in Parliament yesterday, including speaking in 5 parliamentary debates, covering:

    NHS,
    Manufacturing Industry,
    Universities,
    Foreign Affairs
    Constitutional Reform.

    Here are extracts of just two of those debates:

    Bob Spink: The hon. Gentleman knows what I am about to say. Does he accept that the £40 billion or £45 billion trade deficit with the EU blows apart the argument that is often made that, if we were to leave the EU, we would suffer the loss of jobs in this country (in manufacturing industry)? Quite the opposite would probably take place.

    Kelvin Hopkins: There is a bigger debate to be had on that, but the hon. Gentleman is right. We are not advocating that. We are advocating our retaining our own currencies at an appropriate value so that we can at least have a breathing space to compete and invest in manufacturing and so that we can stand tall in future.

    Chris Ruane: To counter that Europe-bashing, may I give the example of Airbus in north Wales, which is a pan-European project involving France, Germany and Spain and 52,000 people, with 6,000 employed in north Wales alone? It is one of the most successful companies in the whole world and it has developed because of the co-operation within Europe.

    Kelvin Hopkins: I accept that co-operation is important, but long before we were in the European Union, we co-operated on Concorde…. And much else…. Getting the right value for our currency helps that co-operation because we can produce the components of the Airbus more cheaply here and do well. Co-operation is nothing to do with the European Union; it is to do with agreement between ourselves and other countries.

    Constitutional Reform: Bob Spink (Castle Point) (Ind) rose-

    Mr. MacShane: I give way to an hon. Member who has rediscovered (by resigning from the Conservative whip) the virtue of honesty …..

    Bob Spink: I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman, but I am an independent MP… as he well knows. I cannot attempt in any way to defend the honour of the leader of the Conservative party, who made a cast-iron guarantee he would give people a referendum. He has reneged on it and will suffer very badly because of his breach of promise to the people. With every promise that he now makes in the lead-up to the next election, he will be asked, "Is that a cast-iron guarantee you are giving this time Mr Cameron?" The public will not trust him on it.

    However, how can we expect the public to return to trusting the House if we will not listen to and trust the public? Why does the right hon. Member for Rotherham (Mr. MacShane) not want to listen to the public, ask them what they want, give them a plebiscite and follow what they want to do?
    Does he really believe that he knows better than the majority of British people?

    Back to Manufacturing Industry:

    Bob Spink (Castle Point) (Ind): Does the hon. Gentleman agree that we must look carefully at patent protection to ensure that specialist and innovative manufacturers can take advantage of their innovations and manufacture their goods in this country, rather than have their patents stolen and the goods manufactured elsewhere? I have a meeting with Lord Mandelson's office on 2 February to discuss that point. Would the hon. Gentleman care to join me in that meeting with a specialist manufacturer from my constituency?

    Mr. Mitchell: The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. We are an innovative country. Although manufacturing has been badly battered, our manufacturing industry is still an innovative source of ideas. It must be able to follow those ideas through to profit, so the ideas must be patented and the patents safeguarded. I agree with that absolutely.