Orders of the Day — Local Government (Scotland) Bill. – in the House of Commons at on 6 March 1929.
Mr William Watson
, Carlisle
I beg to move, in page 32, line 25, at the end, to insert the words:
or shall affect the common good of a burgh or the revenue thereof or any existing power to borrow on the security of such common good or revenues.
(2) Every enactment authorising a county or town council to borrow money for the purpose of meeting any expenditure of a capital nature shall have effect as if it provided that the council shall not without the consent of the Central Department so borrow unless the resolution to borrow has been agreed to by two-thirds of the members of the council present and voting at the meeting at which such resolution is passed.
The House may remember that on this Clause I undertook to consider a point that was raised as to whether the spreading of the security in regard to any money borrowed for the benefit of one particular department should be spread over the whole of the rates; whether the common good should be included in the
catholic security or whether it was not more convenient and better finance that the common good should be kept outside. I came to the conclusion that it was better that the common good should be kept outside the scope of this security. The first part of the Amendment is to make this quite clear. The second subsection deals with another point. Under Sub-section (2) in the original Bill it was provided that borrowing for capital expenditure could only be done where there was a two-thirds Majority. We agreed in Committee that we would substitute for the two-thirds majority the consent of the Central Department. We think it better that consent should only be required where there was less than a two-thirds majority. That is a much more practical and businesslike proposal. Unfortunately, the House will notice that in printing this Clause the printers have omitted the whole of Sub-section (2) and, therefore, we have had to put in Sub-section (2).
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
The Speaker - or the chairman in the case of standing committees - has the power to select which amendments should be debated.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
