Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 4 June 1964.
Mr Henry Brooke
, Hampstead
12:00,
4 June 1964
I respect my hon. Friend's views on the subject of corporal punishment. I hope that he will respect mine.
We have to bear in mind that the Majority of those who took part in the troubles at Whitsun did not arrive by road. Probably in each case the majority of them arrived by train, if they were not local.
The real trouble is that possession of a scooter, a motor bike, a van or a car, and using it to get to a place can facilitate the commission of a great many crimes of various sorts. It would be extremely difficult to have a particular penalty attached simply to crimes of hooliganism when the person concerned could be proved to have come, not to the place, but to the neighbourhood, by a motor vehicle. The difficulties are too great to encourage us to seek a solution along those lines.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
