I understand that. The point about pledges is that when Ministers make them, those pledges, of course, are binding upon the Cabinet of which they are members, unless they resign from the Cabinet and thus free their colleagues from any obligations. I am not suggesting that there was a breach of faith in this case, but I would say to the hon. Member for Southampton that a breach of faith on the part of this Government would not surprise me, of course. It may have been the fate of some hon. Members to have listened to Debates which have taken place in this House on another matter, in which I have been personally deeply concerned, and on a number of occasions the suggestion has been made that a breach of faith has been committed. To those of us on this side of the House it does not come as so great a shock as it does to the hon. Members for Southampton and Central Cardiff (Mr. G. Thomas), who perhaps did not take part in the Debate on that other matter.

When we come to the merits of the matter I would say that I listened very attentively to the case which the Financial Secretary put forward. I was not quite convinced by it. He said that he could not do anything now but that he hoped something might be done next year. If something is to be done to get over the difficulty—which the right hon. Gentleman said could not be gone over—why cannot it be done now? If the difficulty is insuperable, he will not be able to get over it next year. Why should we not have the benefit of the Financial Secretary's knowledge now, if there is a way of getting over it? Let the remedy be applied in another place, where Amendments can be moved to make the Bill more acceptable to this House.

When the hon. Member for Southampton says that there is no more time for change, I would remind him that there is another place where he has friends. If he used his influence he might be able to find some means of putting this injustice right. The Financial Secretary told the House a story that has often been told us before, which was that if we put the injustice right it will be rather hard on somebody else whose grievances will not have been put right. At least, there will be fewer injustices, and I am sure that none of those whose injustices had not been remedied will complain of the fact that somebody else's grievance has been put right. There is time for hon. Members who are interested in this matter to take some action to get this matter ventilated in another place.

We were told by the Financial Secretary that the consequences of the Bill will not be felt for 30 or 40 years. Certainly, there is time to make changes. I cannot pretend that the matter is desperately urgent this afternoon. For that reason, it may be that hon. Members opposite might withdraw their Amendment. I do not know whether they will, but whether they do so or not, they have 30 or 40 years of work ahead of them. They must make the remedying of these grievances their great Parliamentary duty. They must see that this injustice is remedied. I have a feeling that they will be able to get this matter put right somehow or other in that time, if it is not beyond human ingenuity to find a way. Both the hon. Member for Southampton and the hon. Member for Central Cardiff are persevering people with great influence and they may be able, by the end of 30 or 40 years, to put this matter right.