Mr Gilbert Longden: I rise with great trepidation, Sir Charles, because this is my maiden speech, but I shall always feel trepidation in addressing this august assembly, where everything one says is taken down and may be used in evidence. I am quite sure that in practice it will generally be used in evidence against one. I used to think that there was some analogy between a maiden speech and a maiden over, when...
Mr Gilbert Longden: I said " as practised in Communist States, for handsome is as handsome does." I say that they are mutually incompatible. I may be at loggerheads with the head of my own Church, whom I heard in another place, only two days ago, saying that the Church would take no action against professedly Communist priests until the State did, and I thought at the time that it was the sort of lead which one...
Mr Gilbert Longden: asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will find means to relieve flying clubs from having to pay the extra duty on petrol used for flying instruction, and so from having to pass on the additional cost to their members, since this must discourage young people from learning to fly.
Mr Gilbert Longden: Is the right hon. and learned Gentleman aware that the extra cost is as much as approximately 10s. per flying hour?
Mr Gilbert Longden: I rise to support the Motion, and I shall not have to detain the House for very long. I want to express my acknowledgment of the concessions granted by the Minister to one of the foundations which happens to be in my constituency, but I want to add my appeal to him to exclude all these educational bodies on whose behalf this appeal is being made, for the two reasons which have been put before...
Mr Gilbert Longden: I believe that they can be more usefully employed in the place in which their original donors intended them to be spent than if they are thrown into the Minister's pool. It is all very well making fair shares for all if one is doing it with other people's money, but this money was bequeathed for a specific purpose. [An HON. MEMBER: "It has changed."] It was changed in 1909, but in my...
Mr Gilbert Longden: asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation if he has any statement yet to make on the provision of grass landing strips at major aerodromes to lessen the wear on runways and to cheapen their cost of maintenance.
Mr Gilbert Longden: Is the Minister aware that these grass strips are in common use in France, that they make an addition to the landing field and, therefore, lower the cost of running the aerodrome?
Mr Gilbert Longden: asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation which of his Department's aerodromes, situated on the Western Approaches are serviceable and available in case of emergency.
Mr Gilbert Longden: asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation how many hours were flown by his Department's aircraft in 1949.
Mr Gilbert Longden: Is the Minister satisfied that this work could not have been done more economically by civil charter aircraft?
Mr Gilbert Longden: If, as the hon. Member says, the Lord's Day Observance Society does not publish a list of subscribers, how comes it that he knows that the largest subscribers are brewers?
Mr Gilbert Longden: asked the Minister of Works if he will have the frescoes in St. Stephen's Hall and the Lobbies of the Palace restored and refreshed before the Festival of Britain.
Mr Gilbert Longden: asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will consider increasing the amount of the deduction for Income Tax purposes which may be made under Section 22 (1) of the Finance Act, 1920, by a claimant who maintains a relative either because that relative, or because the claimant himself, is incapacitated by old age or infirmity from maintaining himself.
Mr Gilbert Longden: Will the right hon. Gentleman remember this small point when framing his Budget statement, so as to give some relief to a very hard-pressed section of the community?
Mr Gilbert Longden: Why does the hon. Gentleman spoil a good speech—to use an expression which has now become very familiar to us but which I use sincerely—by saying that "even on the Conservative benches" there may be some who believe that there must be a higher law to which we should make our own laws conform? May I remind him that Lord Hugh Cecil was a Conservative? The hon. Member must know that...
Mr Gilbert Longden: asked the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations whether His Majesty's Government will now set up machinery to ensure consultation with the other members of the British Commonwealth of Nations and obtaining their approval before Colonial Territories which shall have achieved full self-government are admitted as equal partners in the Commonwealth.
Mr Gilbert Longden: While welcoming the prospect of new members of the Commonwealth, of whatever colour, may I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether it is true that, according to the Prime Minister of South Africa, his right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Colonies has "already cordially conceded," apparently unilaterally, the demand of West Africa to be accepted into the Commonwealth when she has...
Mr Gilbert Longden: It is with great trepidation that I challenge the hon. and learned Gentleman's interpretation of a document like this Bill, but I should like to revert to his point that the Bill does not make provision for existing pet shops. I should have thought that the intention of the promoters is that it shall relate to existing pet shops, and that Clauses 1(1) and 3 (3) between them cover the point.
Mr Gilbert Longden: asked the Minister of Labour whether he is aware of the dispute between the British Electricity Authority and the Electrical Trades Union over the appointment by the former of an employee who is not a member of that union; and what steps he is taking towards a settlement.