Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Royal Air Force – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 19 March 1947.
Mr Philip Noel-Baker
, Derby
12:00,
19 March 1947
To my regret I must admit that the science of meteorology still leaves much to be desired. During the recent cold weather, however, the Meteorological Office issued about 2,000 weather forecasts for the different regions of the British Isles and of the surrounding seas, and many thousands to the crews of British and other aircraft, and I am advised that the vast Majority of them were correct. I am placing copies of these recent forecasts, and of the subsequent weather reports, in the Library of the House. If the hon. Member finds among them any to which he takes particular objection, perhaps he will put down a further Question.
See "placed in the library".
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.