Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 20 Ebrill 1955.
In other circumstances, the Leader of the House would have wished to wind up this debate himself, but hon. Members who were present about an hour-and-a-half ago will be aware that my right hon. Friend has, in the past two days, already given the House the best of his voice. Indeed, he has jeopardised his voice to such an extent that he runs the risk of appearing before the electors of Gainsborough like a Trappist monk. He has, therefore, invited me to wind up the debate and to deal with a number of relevant points which have been raised.
The debate has ranged rather more widely than anybody could at first have foreseen. We have watched my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol, North-West (Sir G. Braithwaite) licking the blood from his wounds of seven or eight years ago, and we have heard a disquisition from the hon. Member for Devonport (Mr. Foot). In one way and another the House has had a good time.
A great deal that has been said was really by way of objection to an early Dissolution and was not relevant to the main subject of the Motion, the taking of three Fridays of private Members' time. It has been rather difficult for me to square the objections I have heard to the impending demise of this Parliament with the assurances given by the right hon. Member for South Shields (Mr. Ede) that he and his hon. Friends were anxious for an Election at the earliest possible moment and that they were going to face up to what I noticed he called a "stricken field." His friends will be stricken; but the Motion does not concern the date of the dissolution. That would be going far beyond our power. It concerns, in the main, what is to happen on the next three Fridays.
A number of hon. Members have asked about the fate of certain Private Members' Bills which are, so to speak, in the pipeline. I hope that none of those who have spoken on this subject will take offence if I mention that one of the Bills concerned stands, for two reasons, in a special position. I refer, of course, to the Bill introduced by the hon. Member for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Central (Mr. Short) which, I think, has changed its name in its progress and is now the Public Service Vehicles (Travel Concessions) Bill. That Bill was introduced into the House because a decision given in the courts upset the arrangements, working in a number of cities, to which people had become accustomed, and a great deal of local ill-feeling, so I am informed, would have arisen had no action been taken to restore the position. It was not a Private Member's Bill which was just thought up as a good idea; if arose from a situation which was none of this Parliament's creating.
The second respect in which it is unique is that it has already not only had a Second Reading but has passed through Committee and is down for consideration on Report on 13th May. That Bill, therefore, stands in a place by itself, and those hon. Members who were here earlier will recollect that the Leader of the House said that, on the assurances given by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for South Shields, the Government would seek to facilitate its passage through this House.
It will be realised that there must be a procedural Motion to bring it forward from 13th May to an earlier date. I understand that that Motion will be taken as agreed and that no difficulty will be caused from the other side of the House in the course of the remaining stages of the Bill. I therefore hope that it may be possible for that Measure to be sped on its way to another place.
There are 22 Bills which have not yet received a Second Reading. I think that hon. Members on both sides will probably agree that, in any circumstances, the chance of their passing all stages in this House and in another place within the next 16 days is relatively small.
Two Bills have had a Second Reading—the Public Libraries (Scotland) Bill, sponsored by my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh, South (Sir W. Darling) and the Non-Industrial Employment Bill sponsored by the hon. Member for Leek (Mr. Harold Davies). I have no doubt that both Measures deal with important subjects. I would not myself venture to express an opinion on a Scottish matter. As regards the Non-Industrial Employment Bill, let me assure the hon. Member for Leek that I, as a London Member, am interested in the purposes which that Bill seeks to secure, although I do not wholly agree with the methods the Bill itself proposes. I understood him to volunteer the information that it would probably require Amendment.
I believe that the Bill consists of 22 Clauses, so the hon. Member will probably recognise that whether or not Fridays are available for Private Members' Bills the chance of any Bill of 22 Clauses passing successfully through Committee and its remaining stages here, and passing through all stages in another place, is limited. I cannot say more about those two Bills than this. It is impossible to indicate what can happen to either Bill in the House when neither has yet passed through Committee.