asked the Prime Minister whether he will appoint Mr. Victor Feather to his Central Policy Review Staff.

No, Sir. The House should assume that I do not intend to announce in advance appointments to the Central Policy Review Staff unless and until I make a statement to the contrary.

Is not the right hon. Gentleman aware that the advice he gets from all the other experts merely gets him into a bigger and bigger mess? Any commonsense trade union leader will tell him that, if a miner can get £40 a week driving a lorry, he will not go down the pit for £35. This is why 600 men every week are leaving the coal mining industry. Do not the right hon. Gentlemen's experts know this?

It is precisely because of this sort of problem that there has been established a prices and incomes policy, approved by Parliament, and why the offer which has been made to the miners is better than most other groups in the community are likely to receive. It would, therefore, improve the miners' position relative to others and, of course, there would not be leapfrogging under the code, which would enable them to maintain it.

Is my right hon. Friend aware that many of us on the Government side of the House were disappointed that Conservative councillors on Bradford City Council felt unable to support the freedom of that city being granted to Mr. Victor Feather?

Yes, Sir. I think that many Members of the House would feel exactly the same as my hon. Friend has said. As the House realises, however, these are matters which the local authority representatives must decide.