Mr Brendan Bracken: Surely the hon. Gentleman must know that the administrators are now under the direction of the Transport Commission and must obey their orders in every respect.
Mr Brendan Bracken: We should wish for an opportunity of discussing these appointments, with the latest Report of the Coal Board. It will be within the recollection of the right hon. Gentleman that the former Leader of the House promised a day so that an opportunity could be given to the House to discuss the Coal Board's affairs, and I very much hope that it will be provided in the present Session, because the...
Mr Brendan Bracken: May I intervene for a moment, having spent 72 hours continuously on the Gas Act—
Mr Brendan Bracken: I know. The hon. Lady must remember that the whole argument put forward was that the gas units were too small and that centralisation was necessary. That was what the present Chancellor of the Exchequer constantly said upstairs. Has he changed his mind? The hon. Lady should read his speeches.
Mr Brendan Bracken: I certainly have.
Mr Brendan Bracken: Were the Gas Consultative Councils— so nicely described by the hon. Lady— consulted before the price of gas was raised in Scotland, as I am informed they were not?
Mr Brendan Bracken: The decision was taken first by the Minister.
Mr Brendan Bracken: Hear, hear.
Mr Brendan Bracken: No, the hon. Member for Doncaster (Mr. Gunter).
Mr Brendan Bracken: I should like, for a start, to tell the hon. Member for Gravesend (Sir R. Acland) that there is no party controversy in this matter. We all know the appalling problems created by clerical poverty, and we all know that the children of parsons—
Mr Brendan Bracken: I cannot agree with the remarks made by my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Mr. Powell). To suggest that at the present time the holding of long-term Government securities is a wise matter is to my mind silly. We are living in art age of inflation. I should be the last to suggest that this House should interfere with the decision of the Church Assembly, because I do not...
Mr Brendan Bracken: Tell that to the marines.
Mr Brendan Bracken: Surely the right hon. Gentleman has seen the statement made by the Pilgrim Trust which has given such great help to historic churches, that now the number of repairs is so great as to be beyond their means? The right hon. Gentleman must surely know, when he talks of the generosity of parishioners, that some of the most attractive churches in England are now closed because the livings have...
Mr Brendan Bracken: We have stated our objections to this Bill. There is no virtue in repetition. Business of perhaps greater importance is before the House today, and so we shall say nothing more than that we think very little of this Bill. We are not going to take up the time of the House by repeating our arguments or encouraging verbosity.
Mr Brendan Bracken: I must say "ditto" to what I said before.
Mr Brendan Bracken: I must say "ditto" to what I said before.
Mr Brendan Bracken: I think we can commemorate this as the shortest debate on a Coal Bill in the history of this House.
Mr Brendan Bracken: My right hon. Friend the Member for Aldershot (Mr. Lyttelton) is engaged in important public business elsewhere. If he were here, he would join with me in expressing sorrow for the learned Attorney-General—and, let me say by way of digression, that there ought to be a Bill introduced into this House, and it would have the approbation of all parties, to prevent cruelty to Attorneys-General,...
Mr Brendan Bracken: The hon. Member for Ealing, North (Mr. J. Hudson), has had too much lemonade.
Mr Brendan Bracken: You do not do so badly yourself.