Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 13 Rhagfyr 1973.
I am grateful for my hon. Friend's reinforcement.
The simple fact is that we are creating a very large Executive which in this Bill we are making even larger than it was made in the Constitution Act, and we are doing so to forward a deal made between the SDLP and Mr. Faulkner's Unionists. Let there be no misunderstanding what we are doing. It is not to provide good, efficient government that we are dealing with this Bill.
I come then to what is the main subject of today's debate. We have now reached another melancholy stage in the story. We are about to deal with the devolution order which brings into being Part II of the Constitution Act.
One of the remarkable outcomes of Sunningdale has not been clearly understood by anyone. Mr. Faulkner went to Sunningdale, together with others. They were not an Executive. They were no more than an Executive-designate. The hon. Member for Leeds, South seemed to suggest that those who were left out were left out because they were parties in opposition. But there were no parties in government at the time. There was an Executive-designate, and those were the people who went to Sunningdale.
The fundamental error of judgment which was made by Mr. Faulkner was to go to Sunningdale before an Executive had been formed. As it was, Mr. Faulkner found that he had to agree to whatever might be put forward and agreed at Sunningdale, otherwise his Executive could not come into being.
The reality of what happened at Sunningdale is that we in this House of Commons could not have proceeded to implement Part II of the Constitution Act unless there had been agreement with a foreign Power. That is the reality of what we are doing. Thus it was that a foreign Power which is not part of the United Kingdom had a determining say in what would be the constitution of a part of the United Kingdom. That is why the hon. Member for Leeds, South is correct when he says that the political map of Ireland is being altered. Whether we approve of it or not, let us be clear what we are doing.