Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Environment – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 6 July 1983.
Mr William Waldegrave
, Bristol West
12:00,
6 July 1983
Any action that the Government take will bite against very few authorities. As I mentioned, 18 authorities — all Labour authorities — could have brought us right back to target. The great Majority of authorities—up to 80 per cent. of them—both Labour and Conservative, are rating within 2 per cent. of target. Our proposals need frighten none of those responsible authorities.
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.
