Voting Declarations

Part of PARLIAMENT (No. 2) BILL – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 26 February 1969.

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Photo of Mr John Farr Mr John Farr , Harborough 12:00, 26 February 1969

I was not going to forget the hon. Gentleman the Member for South Ayrshire (Mr. Emrys Hughes) in my remarks.

I would call attention to the ability of some of These people. General de Gaulle we do not know perhaps quite as well as some of our own colleagues. I well remember, however, when he came to London in his 'seventies about four or five years ago, and addressed both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall. He spoke to us in French for half an hour. On our chairs we had a written translation in English of what he intended to say. He spoke without a note in his hand and never diverged for a moment from the writen translation; not so much as by a full stop or comma. This was a magnificent feat in a crowded, short visit to this country to a high-powered audience in Westminster Hall.

From those four aged persons I have mentioned I suggest that the Committee can draw a lesson and, I hope, reject subsection (3) of this Clause.