Orders of the Day — Northern Ireland Constitution (Amendment) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 13 Rhagfyr 1973.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Mr James Molyneaux Mr James Molyneaux , South Antrim 12:00, 13 Rhagfyr 1973

I am glad that the hon. Member for St. Paneras, North (Mr. Stallard) accepted the correction by my hon. Friend the Member for Armagh (Mr. Maginnis) to the effect that the Orange Order is not split in different ways. I was reminded of the dry rejoinder by Mark Twain, who, when told that he had died, said that the announcement was somewhat premature. I should not like the hon. Gentleman's celebrations in believing that the Orange Order has disintegrated, as so many other bodies have done and as some on this side of the water are in the process of disintegrating, to be premature.

At this time of grave national emergency we are engaged upon a most extraordinary exercise. We are amending an Act, which we were told could not be altered, almost before the ink has dried. It might have been wiser to be less insistent on the inviolate nature of the Constitution Act. The impression always given was that the Act could not be altered in any circumstances. This was particularly so when changes were suggested by those who held grave doubts about its workability—those who have been labelled "unpledged" by some and "unbribed" by others.

The hon. Member for Leeds, South (Mr. Merlyn Rees) said that, in his view, it was legitimate for people in Northern Ireland to have aspirations towards a United Ireland. Certainly those with such aspirations should have freedom to express their views. No one will quarrel with that proposition. Indeed, no one will blame the British Government for backing that view or regard it as a sellout if they give those people the right to express such views. But the British Government and Parliament are under no obligation to provide the machinery to fulfil those aspirations. That is what the Sunningdale conference has done, and that is why it is regarded as a sell-out and a betrayal by a much wider spectrum than the so-called extremists who are often alluded to in this House.

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said that he thought that the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland accept what is proposed, but that there were some who never wanted any constitutional change. That may be so, and I do not quarrel with it. But to them must be added the new band of professional middle-class objectors who have seen through the smokescreen and clearly identified the dangers and the defects despite all the painstaking attempts to conceal their real nature.

Nothing has so far been said in the debate to disprove the assertions that the so-called guarantee is entirely bogus. The formula in the communiqué is certainly no advance on what has already been said as distinct from what has been done in the past.

It is a feeble excuse to say that it is not politically possible to change the constitution of the Republic and that public opinion in the South would not stand for it. One it tempted to ask: will that same public opinion in the South honour and sustain even the vague verbal assurances given at Sunningdale?

I want to take up briefly a question to which no satisfactory answer has to far been given; namely, the non-participation by some of the leaders and representatives of parties in Northern Ireland in the Sunningdale conference. The White Paper gave the clear impression that the elected leaders of the people of Northern Ireland would be invited to attend. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister at a later stage proposed that Northern Ireland should be represented by the new Executive as a unit. But, in the event, Her Majesty's Government opted for something which was neither one thing nor the other.

The three negotiating teams of the three parties were invited. It really will not do for the Prime Minister to say that others were invited to participate but refused. They were invited to attend to state their views at the beginning, but it was made quite clear that they would be expected to leave immediately afterwards. They were placed on much the same kind of level as, for example, the catering staff, but at a lower level than the international Press, which at least was allowed to indulge in the vigil to the very end. Those representatives have not decided, as has been suggested, to become the Stormont Opposition. At least, to my knowledge they have not made such a decision. In any case, that had no relevance to the Council of Ireland conference.

It is all very well to lecture these Loyalists, who are now what might be called the statutory minority, on how they ought to behave. But the House must face this point squarely. If these people are expected to work constitutionally, the door to democratic, constitutional practices must not be closed on them.

I come to the remarkable expansion in the numbers of the administration to 15. It is true that the old Stormont had nearly as many members in its latter days, but it was not always so. For over 40 years it had only one Minister to each major Ministry. The increase in numbers began when it became necessary for Northern Ireland Prime Ministers, who had by then reached a fairly rapid turnover rate, to engage in delicate balancing operations and, for one reason or another, when they thought it expedient to reward some and to muzzle others. I always felt that the apparatus was somewhat top heavy. I regret that Her Majesty's Government have decided to create so many jobs for the boys.

Like my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Down, South (Captain Orr), I have on many occasions, sometimes in the middle of the night—a time when my judgment is at its soundest—paid tribute to the efficiency of the Northern Ireland ministerial team. Some of them have managed as many as three Departments, and all of that in addition to the strain of commuting between Belfast and London to perform not only ministerial duties in this House but their own parliamentary duties and responsibilities in looking after their constituents. I should have thought, therefore, that the characters who will now fill the stools at Stormont, resident, as they will be, on their home ground, might very well have got through with half the suggested number.

My constituents often ask me why it is that the Westminster Parliament refuses to stand up for the constitutional integrity of Northern Ireland and, in a positive way, support parliamentary democracy in Northern Ireland, to which they feel, as British citizens, that they are entitled. But when they go on to accuse the Westminster Parliament of being selfish and of selfishly deserting them, I point out that it is rather unfair to level such a charge against a Parliament which has, of its own free will and accord, surrendered its rights and powers in a similar fashion to another authority known as the EEC.

It is in no personal sense that I differ from my hon. Friend the Member for Belfast, North (Mr. Stratton Mills) when I assess the volume of support for the new structures as being very much smaller than he has suggested. My experience has been that a great mass of Ulster people, including many who would regard themselves as being non-political, have no confidence whatever in what they regard as the products of a sordid conspiracy between men of few principles and of none.