Oral Answers to Questions — Coal – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 2 February 1959.
Mr Emrys Hughes
, South Ayrshire
12:00,
2 February 1959
asked the Prime Minister if he will make a copy of his official speech, made on 21st January to the Foreign Press Association, available to hon. Members.
Mr R.A. Butler
, Saffron Walden
I have been asked to reply.
I assume that the hon. Member's request is intended as a compliment to my right hon. Friend. The procedure, however, would be unusual, and, I think, inappropriate.
Mr Emrys Hughes
, South Ayrshire
Is the Lord Privy Seal aware that he is quite mistaken and that there was no compliment in this at all? Is he aware that the foreign Press were so disappointed at this speech that they thought that the Prime Minister had brought along with him the script for a Tory women's tea party? Does he not think that, since President Eisenhower and Mr. Mikoyan are making such an impression at their Press conferences, the Prime Minister should take the Lord Privy Seal with him on the next occasion?
Mr R.A. Butler
, Saffron Walden
The hon. Gentleman's information is totally at fault. I understand that the foreign Press were delighted with the speech, but perhaps the hon. Gentleman was distressed by the following sentences, which I should like to read to the House:
Sometimes I think you must regard us as very odd people, very difficult to understand, a strange mixture of recklessness and caution, sentimentalism and realism … We delight in running down our own institutions and our leading public figures.
I am asked to assure the hon. Gentleman that this does not refer to himself.
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 political party system in the English-speaking world evolved in the 17th century, during the fight over the ascension of James the Second to the Throne. James was a Catholic and a Stuart. Those who argued for Parliamentary supremacy were called Whigs, after a Scottish word whiggamore, meaning "horse-driver," applied to Protestant rebels. It was meant as an insult.
They were opposed by Tories, from the Irish word toraidhe (literally, "pursuer," but commonly applied to highwaymen and cow thieves). It was used — obviously derisively — to refer to those who supported the Crown.
By the mid 1700s, the words Tory and Whig were commonly used to describe two political groupings. Tories supported the Church of England, the Crown, and the country gentry, while Whigs supported the rights of religious dissent and the rising industrial bourgeoisie. In the 19th century, Whigs became Liberals; Tories became Conservatives.
