Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 13 December 1973.
Ian Paisley
Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party
12:00,
13 December 1973
For the simple reason that I did not write the white paper. They did. If they want to give promises, then they should stand by them. I did not ask for that promise. If they do not want to stand by that promise, then let them tell the world that they have changed their minds. Let us not have all this talk about sending out invitations. If Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition had been promised something in a White Paper on the lines that they would be attending a conference, they would have been fighting hard to be there. They would not let the Government off the hook. They were denying elected representatives the right to be there. That was the folly committed by the British Government.
Of course we are opposed to the White Paper. The hon. Member for Belfast, North (Mr. Stratton Mills) said that we should have taken part in the first talks and that something different might have happened had we attended those talks. But what did we fight an election for? It would have been dishonest for anybody to have said that they rejected the Executive and then to change their minds and surrender their principles.
The trouble about the talks on the Executive is that they were not only talks about the Executive but concerned policing, the Council of Ireland and other matters. When we asked the Secretary of State to meet us and talk on those matters, we were told "No, you cannot do so."
The hon. Member for Leeds, South has said that he would like to see a proper Opposition in the Assembly in a constitutional situation. But what contribution did he make to the 264,000 voters and their wishes? Did he say "It is in the White Paper that these people should have a say"? If he had said that it would have helped the situation. If some of the other minority leaders had said, "We are in the same position as these Loyalists", we would have stood for their rights to be there. But there was complete silence. The noble Alliance Party was conspicuous by its silence.
Mr. Faulkner did not want the Loyalists to be there, because they would keep an eye on him. He did not want an eye kept on what was going on. The Southern Irish Government could not have gone into the Sunningdale talks to sacrifice their own Constitution because the Southern Constitution says that the matter must be submitted to a plebiscite. Mr. Cosgrave has a Majority of two. The Fianna Fail are breathing down his neck. Mr. Cosgrave could not go into those talks and say "We are giving up Articles 2 and 3." Mr. Faulkner told the country that he would get the situation changed, but that did not happen. We heard what Dr. Fitzgerald said when he arrived home. His words on returning from Sunningdale were "The Constitution is not negotiable".
The Loyalists received an amazing declaration which I have read with great care. The Southern Irish Government said this
The Irish Government accepted and solemnly declared that there could be no change in the status of Northern Ireland "—
there was no definition whatever of what the "status" would be—
until a majority of the people of Northern Ireland desired a change in that status.
It is wonderful that in this day and age Dublin agrees that the majority should rule. The Prime Minister said that it was extraordinary. Mr. Bradford said that it was revolutionary. Mr. Faulkner said that it was dramatic. I must pay tribute to the hon. Member for Belfast, West. He said modestly "We have got all we asked for."
Is not it strange that the British Government's declaration was different? The British Government solemnly declared that it was, and would remain, their policy to support the wishes of the majority of the people of Northern Ireland. Then they defined what they thought was the present status of Northern Ireland. They said that it was part of the United Kingdom. However, that was not written into the declaration of the Southern Government. They kept away from that because they had Articles 2 and 3 of their Constitution staring them in the face.
Article 2 says that the Government of the South controls the whole island of Ireland, all the islands off the shore and the territorial seas. Article 3 says that the Laws passed by the Southern Government shall have the like area and extent of application.
As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
The Speaker - or the chairman in the case of standing committees - has the power to select which amendments should be debated.
Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, or the Official Opposition, is the party with the second largest number of seats in the House of Commons. The role of the Opposition is to question and challenge the Government - the Government proposes, the Opposition opposes - and constantly to call the Government to account for its actions. The Opposition also seeks to establish itself in the eyes of the electorate as a credible alternative Government. The effectiveness of the Opposition depends on the calibre of its MPs and of the Leader of the Opposition. However, probably the most important of all is the size of the Government's majority in the Commons. An Opposition confronted with a huge Government majority such as that enjoyed by the Thatcher Government in the 1983-87 Parliament can do little to prevent the passage of legislation desired by the Government and can hope only to use parliamentary time to expose deficiencies in the Government's policies and shortcomings in Government Ministers, while waiting for the next General Election.
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.
A document issued by the Government laying out its policy, or proposed policy, on a topic of current concern.Although a white paper may occasion consultation as to the details of new legislation, it does signify a clear intention on the part of a government to pass new law. This is a contrast with green papers, which are issued less frequently, are more open-ended and may merely propose a strategy to be implemented in the details of other legislation.
More from wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_paper
Laws are the rules by which a country is governed. Britain has a long history of law making and the laws of this country can be divided into three types:- 1) Statute Laws are the laws that have been made by Parliament. 2) Case Law is law that has been established from cases tried in the courts - the laws arise from test cases. The result of the test case creates a precedent on which future cases are judged. 3) Common Law is a part of English Law, which has not come from Parliament. It consists of rules of law which have developed from customs or judgements made in courts over hundreds of years. For example until 1861 Parliament had never passed a law saying that murder was an offence. From the earliest times courts had judged that murder was a crime so there was no need to make a law.
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.
The Opposition are the political parties in the House of Commons other than the largest or Government party. They are called the Opposition because they sit on the benches opposite the Government in the House of Commons Chamber. The largest of the Opposition parties is known as Her Majesty's Opposition. The role of the Official Opposition is to question and scrutinise the work of Government. The Opposition often votes against the Government. In a sense the Official Opposition is the "Government in waiting".
