Oral Answers to Questions — Trade and Commerce – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 5 June 1945.
Mr. Murray:
asked the President of the Board of Trade when mothers in the Spennymoor Division will be able to purchase babies soothers; is he aware that some months ago hon. Members were assured that supplies would be available in the shops, and up to the present time none has been available to retailers or the general public.
Mr Oliver Lyttelton
, Aldershot
The hon. Member is perhaps under a misapprehension, and is confusing soothers with teats. I have every sympathy with him. Soothers, however, are a means of deception to which, in view of the imminence of the General Election and the present scarcity of rubber, His Majesty's Government cannot lend themselves. The assurances that he, no doubt, has in mind were given in respect of teats, and have been carried out.
Mr. Murray:
Is the Minister aware that his answer makes the position still more ridiculous? It does happen to be a question of teats. I have a letter saying that a woman has given birth to twins, and that she is unable to feed these two children. She has four bottles in the house, with one teat. [Laughter.] Hon. Members need not laugh. They ought to be in the homes of some of these people. Is the Minister aware that I saw these two children yesterday, and the mother told me that she had to scrape the teat of the bottle before she could feed the other children? What is the Minister going to do about a thing like that?
Mr Oliver Lyttelton
, Aldershot
The point of my answer is that the Board of Trade are releasing rubber for teats. We cannot adopt the same attitude with regard to soothers. If there are any cases where teats are in short supply, we shall be glad to look into them.
Mr Emanuel Shinwell
, Seaham
In view of the statement that babies soothers are intended for deceptive purposes, will they be part of the equipment of the Tory Party at the General Election?
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.
In a general election, each constituency chooses an MP to represent it by process of election. The party who wins the most seats in parliament is in power, with its leader becoming Prime Minister and its Ministers/Shadow Ministers making up the new Cabinet. If no party has a majority, this is known as a hung Parliament. The next general election will take place on or before 3rd June 2010.
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 political party system in the English-speaking world evolved in the 17th century, during the fight over the ascension of James the Second to the Throne. James was a Catholic and a Stuart. Those who argued for Parliamentary supremacy were called Whigs, after a Scottish word whiggamore, meaning "horse-driver," applied to Protestant rebels. It was meant as an insult.
They were opposed by Tories, from the Irish word toraidhe (literally, "pursuer," but commonly applied to highwaymen and cow thieves). It was used — obviously derisively — to refer to those who supported the Crown.
By the mid 1700s, the words Tory and Whig were commonly used to describe two political groupings. Tories supported the Church of England, the Crown, and the country gentry, while Whigs supported the rights of religious dissent and the rising industrial bourgeoisie. In the 19th century, Whigs became Liberals; Tories became Conservatives.
