Mr Tom Iremonger: I am sure that if I am not getting on with it to your satisfaction, Mr. Speaker, you will tell me without assistance from the hon. Gentleman. The hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton (Mr. Heffer) was discourteous enough to suggest that I had a slight interest in this matter. Perhaps I might remind him that I introduced a Bill on precisely the same lines as the Government's proposals on 30th...
Mr Tom Iremonger: There was not a single argument against it.
Mr Tom Iremonger: (seated and covered): On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. It was the impression of many hon. Members that when you called for the voices there was a call of "Aye" but no call of "No". In these circumstances, does the House understand that it is to divide?
Mr Tom Iremonger: asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what was the annual average rise in the percentage of the gross national product devoted to official aid to developing countries before 1964, and the annual average fall since then.
Mr Tom Iremonger: How much better do we expect it to get, and how soon?
Mr Tom Iremonger: asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to establish an organisation of emergency service volunteers; and when he expects to announce details of a complete scheme.
Mr Tom Iremonger: Will my hon. Friend say just how enthusiastic the Government are about this subject as a matter of defence and social policy?
Mr Tom Iremonger: I know that the hon. Gentleman does not mean to do this, and he is the last hon. Member who would, but in a sense he is making an attack on the opponents of the Bill, as he might see them. He might be misunderstood as somehow identifying the opponents of Lord Shaftesbury's measures with hon. Members on this side. I know that he would in honesty and historical truth wish to acknowledge that...
Mr Tom Iremonger: Is the hon. Gentleman identifying me with that?
Mr Tom Iremonger: With great respect to the hon. Gentleman, that might be a very good idea, but it would not be within the Long Title of the Bill.
Mr Tom Iremonger: The hon. Member for Nuneaton (Mr. Leslie Huckfield) has really made a Second Reading speech, which is, of course, entirely right and proper for the House, but I want to ask the Minister just one question which I hope he will later answer. I was very worried to hear my hon. Friend the Member for Eastleigh (Mr. David Price), in winding up the Second Reading debate, say what he did about the...
Mr Tom Iremonger: On a point of order, Mr. Johnson. I am sorry to interrupt the hon. Gentleman, and I hope that he will not take it amiss, but is it not strictly out of order in the Chamber or any part of the House, in full session or Committee, to refer to the Public Gallery? If the hon. Gentleman wants to spy strangers, let him do so.
Mr Tom Iremonger: I hope that the Committee, and particularly hon. Members opposite, will understand that Members have conflicting duties and that it is only those duties which prevented me from being able to attend the debate from the beginning. I hope that it will not be thought discourteous of me that I was unable to be present in the Chamber for some time. I hope that the hon. Member for Salford, West...
Mr Tom Iremonger: Of course. The hon. Gentleman has not been actively engaged in public life for as long as he has without having had to come to terms with this question whether authentic authority was given to the party which commanded a majority in an election to enable it to carry out its legislative programme. This, of course, is a fundamental question. It can be argued, and is sometimes argued by...
Mr Tom Iremonger: That is an arguable matter. I think that it would not be in order to argue that issue of enforceability of agreements on this Amendment. We are at the moment talking about registration which as the hon. Member for Salford, West said, is central to the Bill. He and I agree on that. We disagree whether it is right or fair and whether it is desirable. My view that it is right and fair is not...
Mr Tom Iremonger: I hope, Sir Robert, that I am not moving out of order in referring to those people.
Mr Tom Iremonger: Perhaps I could make some rather uncharitable remarks on that score if I had a mind to, but I should be out of order. My argument was directed to the fact that the Clause as it stands would command the confidence of people who elected the Conservative Government to pass this legislation. The Amendment should not be accepted because the Clause conforms with the general wishes of the electorate...
Mr Tom Iremonger: I was hoping that the hon. Member for Walton would answer the question to which we on this side find no answer at all. What is so wrong with these principles, in accordance with which trade unions should be required to register? Hon. Members opposite boast, proudly, and quite rightly, that unions in the main conduct their affairs in accordance with these principles. Nobody has said why they...
Mr Tom Iremonger: I know that had I been in the least out of order you, Sir Robert, would have assisted me to return to it. My argument is that these Amendments should be resisted because they are against the principle of registration of unions, which is necessary in my view if they are to have public confidence as conducting their affairs in the way in which they should conduct them, if they are to exercise...
Mr Tom Iremonger: The hon. Gentleman has just referred to me, and perhaps he will address himself to my fundamental question. 'What is there objectionable in the principles of registration to right hon. and hon. Gentlemen opposite from the point of view of unions which want to register?