CONDUCT OF THE HONOURABLE MEMBER FOR DOVER AND HERALD OF FREE ENTERPRISE

That this House deplores the comments made by the honourable Member for Dover during a House of Commons debate on Ferry Safety on 21st February in which he said, 'Alcoholism caused the 'Herald of Free Enterprise' to go down. People did not do their jobs because they were drunk'; notes that his comments are in contradiction to those made to the House by the then Secretary of State for Transport on 24th July 1987 and the detailed report by Mr Justice Sheen, both of whom failed to mention alcoholism as a cause of the 'Herald of Free Enterprise' tragedy; notes that the Sheen Report made severe criticisms of the management of Townsend Car Ferries Ltd., discounting the honourable Member for Dover's theory that 'extreme left wing trade unionists' were in some way responsible for the disaster; further notes that 6th March 1996 is the ninth anniversary of the disaster, which took place in 1987 (not 1986 as the honourable Member stated); hopes he will make an unreserved and full apology to the bereaved relatives of the victims and to those who survived the disaster; deplores the honourable Member for Dover's appalling and inaccurate attempts to rewrite history; and looks forward to his imminent replacement as a Member of this House by an honourable Member prepared to pay proper respect to those who died, from Dover and elsewhere, in the 'Herald of Free Enterprise' tragedy.