Former MP for Epsom
On a point of order. I wonder if the House is aware that Mr. Deputy-Speaker has just been elected the Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club. I am sure we would wish to join in congratulating him on this honour, because we are very pleased that it has been conferred upon him.
May I ask the hon. Gentleman which room he finds so squalid?
I do not think there is any hon. Member on either side of the House who could in any way complain of the tone of either of the speeches which we have heard. They were both refreshing in their non-party approach to the matter and in the touches of humour and sincerity with which the hon. Members pleaded their cause. The hon. Member for Leek (Mr. Harold Davies) deserves great credit for having...
Since I have been privileged to be a Member of the House, I can remember such Acts as the Food and Drugs Act, 1934, and the Factories Act, 1937, about which the hon. Member for Leek spoke. The Factories Act, 1937, was a tremendous Measure containing 200 Clauses. The present Home Secretary was the Chairman of the Committee upstairs in which we dealt with about 1,500 Amendments, although it...
I would point out to the hon. Gentleman that if we are going to compare these Bills, we are going to get into difficulties. He knows very well that Bills about birds and horses are minor Measures which can go through this House in a week or two. This is a major Measure, requiring perhaps three or four months' work, with a matter of hundreds of Amendments, and all the rest of it. It is quite a...
That may well be true, but I want something provided that can come before the House and be amended. Statutory Instruments have to be passed en bloc or the Government falls. I want something which will give the House of Commons, and not only the Government, control, and something which is capable of being amended. I am sure that is the type of Bill which will give satisfaction to the great...
Yes; we amended the Factories Acts, I quite agree, but whether this Bill, when it goes upstairs, can be so arranged as to come within the type of legislation illustrated by the Factories Acts, in which the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, South (Mr. Ellis Smith) and I are very much interested. I do not know.
I do not think I had better answer that as I am trying to keep the debate on non-party lines. I am surprised at the interruption of the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, South because I remember many of the things he said in that Committee, where he was a great help. What can we do? It is up to the House of Commons, and I want to make some suggestions. All of us in this House have sympathy...
