Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 13 Rhagfyr 1973.
One striking thing about all the debates on Northern Ireland has been the almost complete absence from the Chamber of almost all Members of the House of Commons. I say, as I have done before, that it is the biggest disgrace of this decade that there should not have been greater interest among hon. Members in dealing with a situation so vitally concerned with the hopes and aspirations of the people of Northern Ireland, and in which the lives and homes of the people are having their fate determined by what we do in this House.
It is even worse when we consider our responsibilties, as Members of the House, to those we charge with carrying out the policies of the Government, however mis- taken we may from time to time think those policies are. We should be fulfilling our duty and responsibility to be here in the House when we are discussing policies and decisions whereby we will be sending men to die in Northern Ireland serving in the British Army.
I hope, therefore, that the Press will report to the people of the country the failure in responsibility by hon. Members on both sides of this House—their failure to take an interest in what they expect others to give their lives for.
I have watched the build-up in this House on the constitutional changes in Northern Ireland. I hope that power sharing will work and that the Council of Ireland will work. I have paid tribute, and do so again, to the great courage of those in Northern Ireland who have put at risk their political future and perhaps their lives in trying to make a go of the new set-up. But I know in my heart that their efforts will be in vain.
I say that because I have only to listen to the debate to realise once again the deep bitterness which exists, the deep refusal by the Unionists to accept that Northern Ireland should ever be integrated into the Republic, and the undertones from the hon. Member for Fermanagh and South Tyrone (Mr. McManus) and the hon. Member for Mid-Ulster (Mrs. McAliskey).
I agree wholeheartedly with my hon. Friend the Member for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, who ended his speech by saying that it would be right if the new Executive was to put its proposals on power sharing and everything else to the Northern Ireland people for their opinion. The new Executive will not dare to put those proposals forward on that basis because it knows that they would be overwhelmingly defeated. [Interruption.] My hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, South (Mr. Merlyn Rees) says that they would not. Let the Executive put it to the people of Northern Ireland if it has that faith. I declare that if the Constitution Act passed by this Parliament had been put to the test of opinion in Britain it would have been decisively rejected. Let us not go on making claims without being prepared to put them to the test of public opinion.