Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 4 Rhagfyr 1973.
Mr David Mitchell
, Basingstoke
12:00,
4 Rhagfyr 1973
I welcome my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State in his new position. I am not sure that he will find it any easier to reach agreement on the matters with which he will be dealing here than he did in Northern Ireland. Along with all hon. Members, I have watched with admiration my right hon. Friend's success in that direction.
As I listened to the Opposition front bench spokesman—the right hon. Member for East Ham, North (Mr. Prentice)—I recognised that he was not very happy with the task which he had, or with the disunited ranks behind him. I suppose that today's debate was necessary as a sign of his virility in meeting the problems within his own party. I shall not make it harder for him by praising him in any way. In any event, he made a series of weak points with great emphasis.
The right hon. Member for East Ham, North referred first to the Con-Mech dispute and the fact that £75,000 has been taken from the union's political fund. He accepted that that was unforeseen. Nevertheless, he felt that it was wrong that the union's political fund should have been at risk. The union was fined basically for a non-appearance in the court. Am I right in saying that it was a political decision by the union not to appear in court? If so, it seems not unreasonable that the political fund of the union should be at risk.
The right hon. Gentleman said that the union's political fund should not have been seized. He said that it was a fund which was earmarked for a particular purpose. Are we to understand that the other funds are not earmarked for important purposes? Does the union not have other reserves for a whole series of good industrial reasons, which it requires to enable it to carry out its proper trade union activities?
The right hon. Gentleman then told us that what is wrong is the presence of the court and not the presence or character of the judge. That point was taken up by the hon. and learned Member for Montgomery (Mr. Hooson). It was at the special request of the trade unions that the National Industrial Relations Court was made a separate court and not part of the ordinary legal mumbo-jumbo—with respect to my legal friends—of the ordinary courts—
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
A group of workers who have united to promote their common interests.
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