Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 7 Ebrill 1948.
Mr James Ede
, South Shields
12:00,
7 Ebrill 1948
During the Committee stage of the Representation of the People Bill on 24th March, in connection with the proposed addition of 17 borough constituencies in England, I undertook to ask the Boundary Commissioners if they would receive and consider representations with regard to the proposed manner of dividing the 17 boroughs concerned from the local authorities, political parties and other persons interested, who would have had the right to make such representations to the Commission under the procedure laid down by the House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act, 1944. I therefore wrote to you, Sir, on 25th March. I would like to inform the House that you have now been good enough to forward to me a letter addressed to you by the Deputy-Chairman of the Commission expressing the willingness of the Commissioners to consider such representations, and indicating the manner in which the representations should be made and the procedure which the Commissioners propose to adopt.
The Deputy-Chairman writes as follows:
I have now had an opportunity of consulting my colleagues regarding the Home Secretary's request that we should consider representations relating to the proposals, details of which are set out in the white paper published on 19th March for the Division of the 17 boroughs selected for additional representation.
We are prepared to undertake this additional task, but it is clear that in the circumstances the procedure set out in paragraphs 3 and 4 of Part III of the First Schedule to the House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act is not applicable. Moreover, considerations of time would appear to render it impracticable to employ the normal machinery of local advertisement or the holding of local inquiries if such were considered desirable. Perhaps the simplest course would be for an announcement to be made in the House to the effect that we are prepared to consider any representations relating to the 17 boroughs submitted to us within a specified period. The exact time to be allowed for this purpose will presumably have to be kept as short as possible in order to avoid unnecessary delay in the progress of the Bill. In our view a period of 14 days should be sufficient to enable all those interested to prepare and submit representations. The representations should, of course, be in writing and addressed to the Secretary, Boundary Commission for England, North Wing, Somerset House, London, W.C.2.
When we have considered the representations, we will submit a report to the Home Secretary indicating what amendments if any, should in our view, be made to the published proposals in the light of the representations submitted.
In accordance with the suggestion made in the letter representations should reach the Secretary of the Commission not later than 24th April.
The House of Commons is one of the houses of parliament. Here, elected MPs (elected by the "commons", i.e. the people) debate. In modern times, nearly all power resides in this house. In the commons are 650 MPs, as well as a speaker and three deputy speakers.
A document issued by the Government laying out its policy, or proposed policy, on a topic of current concern.Although a white paper may occasion consultation as to the details of new legislation, it does signify a clear intention on the part of a government to pass new law. This is a contrast with green papers, which are issued less frequently, are more open-ended and may merely propose a strategy to be implemented in the details of other legislation.
More from wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_paper
The House of Commons votes by dividing. Those voting Aye (yes) to any proposition walk through the division lobby to the right of the Speaker and those voting no through the lobby to the left. In each of the lobbies there are desks occupied by Clerks who tick Members' names off division lists as they pass through. Then at the exit doors the Members are counted by two Members acting as tellers. The Speaker calls for a vote by announcing "Clear the Lobbies". In the House of Lords "Clear the Bar" is called. Division Bells ring throughout the building and the police direct all Strangers to leave the vicinity of the Members’ Lobby. They also walk through the public rooms of the House shouting "division". MPs have eight minutes to get to the Division Lobby before the doors are closed. Members make their way to the Chamber, where Whips are on hand to remind the uncertain which way, if any, their party is voting. Meanwhile the Clerks who will take the names of those voting have taken their place at the high tables with the alphabetical lists of MPs' names on which ticks are made to record the vote. When the tellers are ready the counting process begins - the recording of names by the Clerk and the counting of heads by the tellers. When both lobbies have been counted and the figures entered on a card this is given to the Speaker who reads the figures and announces "So the Ayes [or Noes] have it". In the House of Lords the process is the same except that the Lobbies are called the Contents Lobby and the Not Contents Lobby. Unlike many other legislatures, the House of Commons and the House of Lords have not adopted a mechanical or electronic means of voting. This was considered in 1998 but rejected. Divisions rarely take less than ten minutes and those where most Members are voting usually take about fifteen. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P9 at the UK Parliament site.
