Orders of the Day — Prolongation of Parliament Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 30 September 1942.

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Photo of Mr Ronald Ross Mr Ronald Ross , County Londonderry

I do not think the hon. Member did. That has a distinct bearing on this question. It is bad enough that the soldier in the Libyan desert should be unable to take part in the government of the country, by electing Members to this House; but it is notorious that in Northern Ireland there is one party at present, represented by the Government of Northern Ireland, which stands behind the Government and people of Great Britain in the prosecution of the war, and another, the principal Opposition party, whose main plank is to join a neutral country. As voluntary service is the rule in Ulster, it happens that, with very few exceptions, only people of one point of view enlist and are sent away. In this country people of all parties are called up, the only considerations being age and the rules in force for National Service. In Northern Ireland, with voluntary enlistment, you naturally get in the Services a great predominance of people of one particular point of view, those whom we call the loyal men—the others, I think, call themselves the patriots—joining up. To hold an election in Northern Ireland would be far worse than to hold one here. It would deprive volunteers who are serving of their civic rights because they are fighting for their country, just as a large number of my constituents are doing, headed by the man who was Mayor at the beginning of the war. That is a situation peculiar to Northern Ireland.

As regards the charge that the Northern Ireland Government is grossly unpopular and does not represent the opinion of the people, I think criticism of Governments is customary in war. Everybody has a bad time, and the people like to blame somebody. A good deal of criticism has been levelled against the Government of Northern Ireland, but they have lost only two by-elections in the whole period, and in one case the successful candidate claimed to be as good a Unionist as his opponent, but an independent one, while in the other case I do not think there was anything in the election address of the successful candidate which was contrary to the main principle of Unionism. We must remember that we are speaking of a Parliament elected two years after this Parliament. If we give this Bill a Second Reading and do not apply it to the far more recently elected Parliament it will be another case of injustice. To my mind, there can be no justification for making a distinction between the two Parliaments, and any factors which are peculiar to Northern Ireland rather strengthen the case for prolonging the Northern Ireland Parliament's life.