Part of Orders of the Day — Report [20TH February] – in the House of Commons am ar 25 Chwefror 1924.
I am young, but not quite so young as that. May I appeal to the Government not to make up their minds to follow the policy of the Tory party. The Tory policy is directed against the right of the people of London to control their own affairs. They want not only that the police shall not be under the control of London, but that the traffic—involving the traffic combine, an enormous financial corporation with mysterious finances that have association with not only London but Amsterdam and other Continental places-shall be controlled by the Minister of State whose Department they think they could influence. The mistake previous Governments have made is in thinking that modern London, with its big Labour movement, with its new spirit of public administration is going to allow them to wipe their feet on it as old Tory London allowed to be done.[Laughter.] That laugh comes from the hon. Gentlemen opposite. They used to laugh like that about Ireland. They laughed about various Imperial questions involving certain dependencies of this country. They now laugh about London.