Code of Practice for Night Assemblies

Part of New Clause No. 2 – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 5 May 1972.

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Photo of Mr Leslie Huckfield Mr Leslie Huckfield , Nuneaton 12:00, 5 May 1972

—and bourgeois—the very word I would have used next. When hon. Members opposite want to make them thoroughly decent and aboveboard, I get very suspicious. Those sort of intentions have caused a great deal of clashes and confrontation in our society, particularly when dealing with young people. One recalls the confrontation which we have already had in certain villages where people have tried to hold pop festivals. Young people in the United States have been beaten down and beaten back when trying to express their opinions. I cannot help thinking that this legislation, apart from widening the generation gap, will encourage even more the kind of confrontation between the generations of which our society is very much afraid.

The hon. Gentleman should forget his militaristic past. Perhaps he 'still goes on exercises with the Territorial Army, or whatever it is now called, but I do not think that is the way to treat young people. Young people are not impressed by the sentiments of the Bill in wanting to make everything thoroughly orderly, decent and bourgeois. If the hon. Gentleman does that and pushes ahead with the endeavours of the Bill, we shall lose the very spontaneity of young people which we should be encouraging.

I also strongly object to the patronising attitude on the benches opposite. The hon. Members for Harrow, East and for Weston-super-Mare seemed to think that they have got something to impart to young people. They seemed to think that, because they have lived their lives in a certain way, the generations that come after them should do the same. If the House made the mistake of thinking it had the right to tell successive generations to behave in the same manner as we behaved, that would be terribly wrong. The conventions, traditions and atmosphere of the hon. Gentleman's generation and the generations that came before are not the attitudes, conventions and traditions of today. One of the great features of young people is that they have turned their backs on, rebelled against, and rejected many of the conventions which we find so overwhelmingly represented on the benches opposite.

I want the hon. Gentleman to stop being so patronising about young people and to stop thinking he has some unique wisdom to impart to them. Above all, I want him to stop thinking they need his advice. When young people find sentiments like the hon. Gentleman expresses being breathed down their necks, they are bound to rebel even more.