Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 13 Rhagfyr 1973.
The clause about the plebiscite can be removed too. I am rather perplexed to know why this was written into the Act:
… a Northern Ireland Executive can be formed which, having regard to the support it commands in the Assembly and to the electorate on which that support is based, is likely to be widely accepted throughout the community.
Can anyone say that with 264,000 first preference votes cast against it it could be widely accepted? Nobody could say that. The kernel of the matter is that the Executive should put its policy to the country. It has an economic and social
policy. If this country had a General Election, the Government would have to spell out their economic and social policies and the Opposition would be spelling out theirs. The electorate would decide between those policies. Nobody except those people on the Executive know what is the economic and social policy. We have no say in the policy that is to be pursued. It should be submitted to the people.