Oral Answers to Questions — Unemployment. – in the House of Commons at on 6 February 1929.
Sir Smedley Crooke
, Birmingham Deritend
asked the Minister of Labour if, in view of the number of unemployed in the city of Birmingham and, particularly, in the Deritend Division, he will consider the advisability of cancelling the instructions to the Employment Exchanges in the city on the working of the industrial transference scheme?
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland
, Birmingham Erdington
According to the last published figures, the percentage of unemployment in the Birmingham area has decreased from 11.9 per cent. in 1924 to 7.8 per cent., and is now 50 per cent. less than the corresponding figure for Great Britain as a whole. In the same period the insured population has increased by 8.2 per cent. In view. there- fore, of the inflow of population which is taking place (and apparently likely to continue in any event), while the local percentage of unemployment is decreasing, I am not prepared to take the action suggested by the hon. Member.
Mr Robert Dennison
, Birmingham King's Norton
In view of the fact that the City Corporation of Birmingham and the Birmingham Board of Guardians have made representations to the right hon. Gentleman and to the Government to refrain from sending transferred unemployed to Birmingham, will not the right hon. Gentleman reconsider his reply, and see that people living in Birmingham who are unemployed are given employment before transferred unemployed are imported?
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland
, Birmingham Erdington
I will always consider any communications made to me either by the authorities of the city or of the Poor Law Union in Birmingham.
Mr Robert Dennison
, Birmingham King's Norton
Has the right hon. Gentleman received communications from these two bodies, or has he not?
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland
, Birmingham Erdington
Not recently; and I have no reason to believe that the city council of Birmingham take the view of the hon. Member.
Mr Robert Dennison
, Birmingham King's Norton
Will the right hon. Gentleman indicate what he means by "recently," because I have information that within the last three weeks a protest has been made to the right hon. Gentleman?
Mr Arthur Steel-Maitland
, Birmingham Erdington
I do not know of anything recently. If the hon. Member will put down a question, I will find out any date and let him know.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
The House of Commons votes by dividing. Those voting Aye (yes) to any proposition walk through the division lobby to the right of the Speaker and those voting no through the lobby to the left. In each of the lobbies there are desks occupied by Clerks who tick Members' names off division lists as they pass through. Then at the exit doors the Members are counted by two Members acting as tellers. The Speaker calls for a vote by announcing "Clear the Lobbies". In the House of Lords "Clear the Bar" is called. Division Bells ring throughout the building and the police direct all Strangers to leave the vicinity of the Members’ Lobby. They also walk through the public rooms of the House shouting "division". MPs have eight minutes to get to the Division Lobby before the doors are closed. Members make their way to the Chamber, where Whips are on hand to remind the uncertain which way, if any, their party is voting. Meanwhile the Clerks who will take the names of those voting have taken their place at the high tables with the alphabetical lists of MPs' names on which ticks are made to record the vote. When the tellers are ready the counting process begins - the recording of names by the Clerk and the counting of heads by the tellers. When both lobbies have been counted and the figures entered on a card this is given to the Speaker who reads the figures and announces "So the Ayes [or Noes] have it". In the House of Lords the process is the same except that the Lobbies are called the Contents Lobby and the Not Contents Lobby. Unlike many other legislatures, the House of Commons and the House of Lords have not adopted a mechanical or electronic means of voting. This was considered in 1998 but rejected. Divisions rarely take less than ten minutes and those where most Members are voting usually take about fifteen. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P9 at the UK Parliament site.
