Clause 24. — (Rates of Profits Tax, etc.)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 11 June 1951.

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Photo of Sir Ian Fraser Sir Ian Fraser , Morecambe and Lonsdale 12:00, 11 June 1951

I had the advantage during the weekend of spending an hour with Sir Bryan Fell, who will be remembered by older hon. Members as one of the wisest of our Clerks. He is now retired. We were talking over the question of all-night sittings and of the Finance Bill and he reminded me that in 1909 the House sat throughout the month of August and had some 900 divisions on the Committee stage of a Finance Bill. Is the Committee less capable—[HON. MEMBERS: "No!"]—of sustaining powerful arguments—[HON. MEMBERS: "No!"]—or of doing its duty—[HON. MEMBERS: "No."]—than our forefathers were? [HON. MEMBERS: "No."] I am told that in those times the Clerks of the House used to have a week off and then a week on so that they might carry out their duties.

The hon. Gentleman the Member for Bilston (Mr. Nally) has indicated his dissent from the all-night Sitting. I affirm that if we were to agree to avoid the all-night sitting, we could only do that by having one Chief Whip, and that means one party, that means destruction of the rights of Parliament, that means destroying the principal function of this House of Commons debating and guarding the taxpayer in all matters of taxation. I think that we ought, as the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Woodford (Mr. Churchill) advised us, to let this debate take its proper course and let every matter have full discussion and a fair hearing.