Orders of the Day — MARRIED WOMEN (RESTRAINT UPON ANTICIPATION) BILL [Lords]

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 29 November 1949.

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Photo of Mr Reginald Manningham-Buller Mr Reginald Manningham-Buller , Daventry 12:00, 29 November 1949

I do not intend to make a second speech this evening, but I think that, after what the Attorney-General has said, it is desirable that I should make a few comments on his speech. I must say that, although I have no doubt from the manner in which he delivered his speech that it gave him great satisfaction to say the things he did. I regard that speech as completely lamentable. It is very easy for him to make all sorts of cheap gibes, and he has showed in that connection that there is some truth in the statement which he made some time ago—"We are the masters now." Of this sort of cheap gibes he is the undoubted master.

Why I regard his speech as completely lamentable is that he has never really answered the point put by those who are critical of this Bill. It is this: Why has he gone for this complete abolition without adopting the alternative method put forward in another place, and put forward here on Second Reading, in which case I think that this Bill would have gone through without any opposition at all? The right hon. and learned Gentleman has not answered the case; instead, he has indulged in cheap gibes.