If it was not in order to comment on it, I shall say no more about it. I sought merely to comment on the remarks of the right hon. Member for East Ham, North, who, I am delighted to see, has rejoined us.

I turn to the right hon. Gentleman's next point. He condemned confrontation. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State knows, I am sure, that there is one very simple way of ensuring that the number of strikes and the number of working days lost fall away to practically nothing. It is an easy solution—give in to every wage demand, however inflationary and unreasonable. However, that is not a solution which will commend itself to the Majority of the people. It is interesting to note that when the Labour Party was in power the overwhelming number of price increases in the shops were the direct result of wage inflation and the failure to confront. That has to be contrasted with the past 12 months, during which the overwhelming cause of price increases in the shops has been the increase in commodity prices outside this country. In other words, the cause of the first price increases was one within the control of the country. The other was outside the control of any Government.

The right hon. Gentleman attacked confrontation and suggested that the Government should not indulge in seeking to prevent inflationary wage settlements. In that, the right hon. Gentleman reveals all too clearly that the consequences of the Labour Party's policies are to mount on top of world inflation the disastrous and damaging effect of internal wage inflation.

Finally, the right hon. Gentleman promised to repeal the Industrial Relations Act. I think that he confirmed the view of many people that one of the reasons why industrial relations are going through a very difficult phase is that so many people in trade unions feel that the Act is a temporary measure and that, come the next General Election, it will disappear. Feeling that, they believe that all that they have to do is to refuse to work it and to destroy its credibility. So I have a strong suspicion that not until the Act has been confirmed by a further General Election and the recognition by the trade unions that they have to deal with another five years of Conservative Government will there be any moves to live with it and work with it. Only then shall we be able to move on to amend it.

Having said that, I move on to discuss the amendments which I should like to see made to the Act.

Industrial relations are human relations. They are the way that men and management get on together. We are concerned with raising the standards of conduct by unions and employers, shop stewards and managements. Our desire is the orderly making and keeping of collective bargains, and that change is bound to be a long, slow process. But that is no reason why we should not start on it as soon as possible.

I ask the House to look at the provisions relating to registration, dismissed contemptuously by one hon. Member opposite as "the dog licence". I do not think that the terms relating to the registration of trade unions are onerous. As an ex-member of the Transport and General Workers' Union, it looks to me as if many of them have been lifted straight out of the rule book of that union. I cannot see why they should cause too much disturbance to the Opposition. Nevertheless, in an effort to secure changes which will mean a more ready acceptance of the Act by the trade unions, the registration clauses might be removed from the Act and made part of the code which does not have the force of law except in certain rare circumstances.

Then we ought to reconsider the situation on the closed shop. There may be a case for saying that, in itself, the closed shop is not such a disaster, providing that there is a right of appeal for the man wrongly treated within the closed shop. Here is an area for negotiation between the trade unions and the Government in which we might seek to find changed circumstances to make the Act more acceptable. I believe that there are circumstances which in due course could lead to an acceptance of the Act involving changes by the Government and an undertaking by the unions to work the Act.

I come finally to the Opposition motion. In my view it is a pity that the Government have not sought to amend it. It talks of the increasing damage being done to industrial relations and to the legitimate activities of trades unions. I suggest that this is self-inflicted damage and that it results from the political activities of the trade unions. The motion goes on to talk about earlier instances of industrial disruption and harm to the economy". I should like to see that phrase amended by the addition of the words by a militant politically motivated minority. It is a case of mind over matter. They do not mind, and the public do not matter!