Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 10 November 1947.
Mr Evelyn Strachey
, Dundee
12:00,
10 November 1947
That is something outside the scope of my Department. It is a question which should be addressed to my light hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, but those powers are in his hands. The hon. Member then turned to the question of whether rationing should not have been imposed earlier. I have already said that the position of rationing during the last potato crop year would have had no influence whatever one way or another.
The hon. Member then came to the substantial point, and one which I think well worth arguing and giving attention to, and one which is much more substantial than any attack over rationing now—the question of whether rationing ought not to have been imposed earlier. Naturally, we went into this with the utmost care, and the real situation is this: Until last month, October, it was impossible to know what the size of the crop would be. My right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture could not give me any reliable estimates of the size of the crop.
On the other hand, it was clear that as the very hot summer went on there was danger of a short crop. We began to take steps to restrict the off-take, and so the consumption, of potatoes, as early as 1st August, when a prohibition on the sale of long-keeping varieties was brought into effect. It was not imposed on non-long-keeping varieties because it was no use preserving them—they must be used up. Then we gradually and progressively increased the stringency of our measures, increasing the buying up and the prohibition of sale to the public of these long-keeping varieties, and reinforcing that with the prohibition of the transport of potatoes from surplus to deficit areas. But it was not until the autumn, until this time of year, when a sufficient proportion of the potatoes had come into the hands of the Ministry, and the control of distribution was possible, that an allocation scheme of this sort could be brought into effect. We were advised by the very able men who control the Potato Division of the Ministry, exactly the same men who have controlled it for the past six years, that it would have been quite impracticable to bring any such scheme as this into effect earlier during this period. Therefore, I am perfectly clear that as a matter of actual practicability it would not have been a useful or an intelligent thing to have introduced this scheme earlier.
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.
