Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 5 Rhagfyr 1973.
The short point is that the Government could well say that the logic of our votes on the Channel Tunnel meant that we would not have a Channel tunnel proposal before the House today. If we had succeeded in any of our three votes, the project would have come to an end. It is very difficult for the Opposition to put forward detailed proposals, because we do not have the resources of Government behind us. In any event, when the next General Election comes, the treaty will have been signed, which was not the case when we debated the White Paper. As a new Government, we should have to pick up the situation as it was then and consider it then. It is impossible to answer a great many hypothetical questions. We were not the Government on 15th November, which was the deadline. If we had been, we should have given our answer.