Oral Answers to Questions — Ministry of Information. – in the House of Commons at on 17 December 1941.
Mr James Milner
, Leeds South East
asked the Minister of Information whether he is aware that the caption, "Ministry of Information," on films produced by his Ministry, subconsciously prejudices audiences against them as being obvious propaganda; and will he consider either placing such captions at the end or omitting them altogether?
Mr Brendan Bracken
, Paddington North
No, Sir. From information available to me it appears that the Ministry of Information films are now welcomed by exhibitors and by audiences in the Majority of cinemas throughout the country.
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 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.
