Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 16 January 1997.
Mr Philip Oppenheim
, Amber Valley
12:00,
16 January 1997
The hon. Lady should probably have continued the quotation to put it in context. I think that her question is marvellous. I never thought that I would stand at the Dispatch Box—[HON. MEMBERS: "Go, then."]—and listen to a Labour Front Bencher make such a heartfelt plea against tax rises. It shows that 17 years of Tory rule have not been in vain. The deputy leader of new Labour's throwing a temper tantrum at the suggestion that he should give a fiver to a tramp proves that, while new Labour may demonstrate admirable enthusiasm for Tory policies, it might be extrapolating a little too far.
If you've ever seen inside the Commons, you'll notice a large table in the middle - upon this table is a box, known as the dispatch box. When members of the Cabinet or Shadow Cabinet address the house, they speak from the dispatch box. There is a dispatch box for the government and for the opposition. Ministers and Shadow Ministers speak to the house from these boxes.
The political party system in the English-speaking world evolved in the 17th century, during the fight over the ascension of James the Second to the Throne. James was a Catholic and a Stuart. Those who argued for Parliamentary supremacy were called Whigs, after a Scottish word whiggamore, meaning "horse-driver," applied to Protestant rebels. It was meant as an insult.
They were opposed by Tories, from the Irish word toraidhe (literally, "pursuer," but commonly applied to highwaymen and cow thieves). It was used — obviously derisively — to refer to those who supported the Crown.
By the mid 1700s, the words Tory and Whig were commonly used to describe two political groupings. Tories supported the Church of England, the Crown, and the country gentry, while Whigs supported the rights of religious dissent and the rising industrial bourgeoisie. In the 19th century, Whigs became Liberals; Tories became Conservatives.
