Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 3 June 1964.
Mr George Thomson
, Dundee East
12:00,
3 June 1964
I hope to prove it to the satisfaction of the hon. Member. There can be no doubt that it is the desire of the party opposite to make a substantial reduction in the level of protection for the jute industry. We had a very frank expression of the general view on the Conservative benches in the speech of the hon. and learned Member for Darwen. He repeated frankly what the Minister said to the jute industry in July last year, but later solf-pedalled because of the amount of Opposition that it aroused, and also because, regrettably, we had a By-election pending in the City of Dundee at the time.
In the debate on 24th July, 1963—in the early hours of the morning, as the hon. Gentleman may recall—the Minister made a quite fair and frank statement of the Conservative attitude on this matter, when he said:
… it is in the interests of the jute industry of Dundee that we get a change in the method of protection as well as in the level of it as soon as possible."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 24th July, 1963; Vol. 681, c. 1698.]
It is for that reason that I tell him that the jute industry is at risk if his party remains in power.
My right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition, who has an intimate knowledge of these matters from his period of office as President of the Board of Trade in the Labour Administration, has made it clear time and time again, as the hon. and learned Member for Darwen confirmed, that a Labour Government would use the economic power of the State to prevent full employment in the jute industry being put in peril. Therefore, there can be no doubt that it is in the overwhelming interest of the overwhelming Majority of people in the Dundee area that there should be a change of Government.
My immediate point, however, is to make it clear that because of the postponement of the General Election the Government should give the House a clear undertaking that their statement of last August—that in 12 months they would take certain action—will no longer be carried out.
Laws are the rules by which a country is governed. Britain has a long history of law making and the laws of this country can be divided into three types:- 1) Statute Laws are the laws that have been made by Parliament. 2) Case Law is law that has been established from cases tried in the courts - the laws arise from test cases. The result of the test case creates a precedent on which future cases are judged. 3) Common Law is a part of English Law, which has not come from Parliament. It consists of rules of law which have developed from customs or judgements made in courts over hundreds of years. For example until 1861 Parliament had never passed a law saying that murder was an offence. From the earliest times courts had judged that murder was a crime so there was no need to make a law.
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In a general election, each constituency chooses an MP to represent it by process of election. The party who wins the most seats in parliament is in power, with its leader becoming Prime Minister and its Ministers/Shadow Ministers making up the new Cabinet. If no party has a majority, this is known as a hung Parliament. The next general election will take place on or before 3rd June 2010.
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A by-election occurs when a seat in the House of Commons becomes vacant during the lifetime of a Parliament (i.e. between general elections) because the sitting MP dies, resigns, is elevated to the peerage, or becomes ineligible to sit for some other reason. If a vacancy occurs when the House is in session, the Chief Whip of the Party that formerly held the seat moves a Motion for a new writ. This leads to the by-election taking place. Prior notice does not have to be given in the Order Paper of the House. There is no time limit in which a new writ has to be issued, although by convention it is usually done within three months of a seat becoming vacant. There have been times when seats have remained empty for more than six months before a by-election was called. The sitting party will obviously choose a time when they feel confident of success. Seats are often left vacant towards the end of a Parliament to be filled at the General Election though this is not always the case and by-elections have sometimes occurred just before the dissolution of Parliament. While a vacancy exists a member of the same party in a neighbouring constituency handles constituency matters. When the new Member is elected in the by-election, all outstanding matters are handed back. Further information can be obtained from factsheet M7 at the UK Parliament site.
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