Orders of the Day — Clause 1. — (Works to Which This Act Applies.)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 24 March 1955.

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Photo of Mr Richard Harris Mr Richard Harris , Heston and Isleworth 12:00, 24 March 1955

I am rather sorry that the Attorney-General intervened quite sc early in the debate. I could have hoped that he would have first heard some of the arguments that have been deployed

I support the principle of the Amendment. That we should have a hard-and fast date of 1939 is not so important, but I think that the Attorney-General should look again at the Clause and the Amendment with a view to narrowing the operation of the Clause. As at present draftee it is very wide indeed—much wider that the House of Commons intended. It now covers any book or magazine which tells its story in pictures being stories portraying … the commission of crimes. I thought that in introducing this legislation the House wished to deal with pictures portraying violence, sexual crimes and so on. The Clause just baldly says "the commission of crimes." I am ignoring the condition about tending to corrupt because that term is so wide as to mean nothing.