Oral Answers to Questions — Malawi – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 16 June 1964.
Mr Michael Foot
, Ebbw Vale
12:00,
16 June 1964
asked the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations and the Colonies who will represent Her Majesty's Government at the Malawi Independence celebrations.
Mr Willie Hamilton
, Fife West
asked the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations and the Colonies what criteria were used in selecting the members of the United Kingdom Government delegation to the Malawi independence celebrations.
Mr Duncan Sandys
, Wandsworth Streatham
The Government are represented at such celebrations by a member of the Cabinet. As already announced, the British delegation to the Malawi Independence Celebrations will be led by my noble Friend, the Lord Chancellor.
Mr Michael Foot
, Ebbw Vale
Is this the Government's idea of a square peg in a square hole? Is it intended that the Lord Chancellor will take with him a copy of the Devlin Report bound in vellum, or would it not be more gracious if the Government decided to send Lord Devlin himself to the celebrations instead of one who has been so bitterly opposed to the Nyasaland freedom movement?
Mr Duncan Sandys
, Wandsworth Streatham
Dr. Banda sent me a message to say that my noble Friend the Lord Chancellor would be very welcome.
Mr Willie Hamilton
, Fife West
Can the right hon. Gentleman say whether there will be a tropical kit of a white sheet issued to the Lord Chancellor? Does not the right hon. Gentleman think that this is a calculated insult to Nyasaland in view of the really shocking speeches which the noble Lord made when he was discussing the Devlin Committee's Report in this House in 1959?
Mr Duncan Sandys
, Wandsworth Streatham
All I can say is that if Commonwealth leaders who have said rough things about one another were not able to meet, we should have a very depleted table at Marlborough House next month.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
