Former MP for Birmingham Handsworth
Hear, hear.
Last Friday's episode was not the first, although it was incomparably the worst outbreak perpetrated in the House in the last few years. Is my right hon. Friend satisfied that adequate alarm arrangements exist for the protection of members of the staff? I understand, although I have not been able to verify, that when this incident occurred the alarm sirens did not sound, and secretaries on...
We have all been candidates, but I do not know whether I have the unique distinction in the House of also having had the responsibility of being a returning officer in an election, although not in this country, and for an area the size of the constituency of the hon. Member for Richmond, Yorks (Sir T. Kitson). Therefore, when the hon. Member for Staffordshire, South-West (Mr. Cormack) refers...
Speaking off the cuff, I think that it is convention. There have been several instances where there has been a complete impasse as a result of an extremely close result and, because of sheer fatigue, the counting has been postponed until the following day. It happened at Plymouth in the last election, it happened at Carmarthen in 1974, and it happened to my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing,...
Did that person realise that he was committing a grave criminal offence?
I was not accusing anybody of anything discreditable. I was merely saying that the new clause is so meritorious and uncontroversial that I could not imagine that in the aftermath of last Wednesday something in a sense so mundane and non-political could have been in contemplation when the Front Benches evolved their pact.
On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I gave your office notice of this matter. I think that you have had notice of a matter that I intended to raise some time ago. It was simply that a few days ago I sought to table a question to the Chancellor of the Exchequer asking what the tax incidence was appertaining to the Westminster estate. I was told by your office, no doubt in good faith, that...
Further to that point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker, would not one way of resolving the problem be for you to be supplied with copies of the two documents, so that you would be able to read them out one after the other? We would then be able to compare them to find out whether there is a difference. It is not satisfactory to have an element of doubt. Even in relation to the slovenly standards...
