Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 23 Mehefin 1964.
Sir John Hobson
, Warwick and Leamington
12:00,
23 Mehefin 1964
The reason why I am not directing the Director of Public Prosecutions to institute any prosecution is that I have no evidence that the offence of perjury has been committed by either of the makers of the two statements. Mr. Andrews is reported to have conceded that the special instructions may have been issued to keep Lonsdale and Blake apart. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has confirmed that such strict instructions were given. As my right hon. Friend has already informed the House, he has had inquiries made by those who were at the prison at the time, and to the best of their knowledge and recollection Blake and Lonsdale did not meet. Therefore, there is not any available evidence in that case to show that the statutory declaration was false, or at any rate one cannot say with certainty that one can prove the falsity of that statutory declaration. Mr. Bloom's statement is purely a matter of hearsay of a conversation which he alleges he had with Lonsdale. The only way in which it could be proved that his statu- Tory declaration was false was, first, if he admitted that it was false, and, secondly, if Lonsdale were available to give evidence confirming that fact. Neither of those events has happened or seems likely.
The political party system in the English-speaking world evolved in the 17th century, during the fight over the ascension of James the Second to the Throne. James was a Catholic and a Stuart. Those who argued for Parliamentary supremacy were called Whigs, after a Scottish word whiggamore, meaning "horse-driver," applied to Protestant rebels. It was meant as an insult.
They were opposed by Tories, from the Irish word toraidhe (literally, "pursuer," but commonly applied to highwaymen and cow thieves). It was used — obviously derisively — to refer to those who supported the Crown.
By the mid 1700s, the words Tory and Whig were commonly used to describe two political groupings. Tories supported the Church of England, the Crown, and the country gentry, while Whigs supported the rights of religious dissent and the rising industrial bourgeoisie. In the 19th century, Whigs became Liberals; Tories became Conservatives.
