Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 13 Rhagfyr 1973.
The hon. Gentleman should try to be fair. There is no Government in Northern Ireland. There cannot be a Government in Northern Ireland till we have passed this Bill. There is no such body as an Executive; it is an Executive-designate. So the hon. Gentleman cannot say that there is an Opposition and a Government. The trouble with this House is that Members who are not Members for Northern Ireland try to tell Northern Ireland Members, who are trying to apply themselves to what is essential, what to do. They should not get up and say, "You want to be in the Government". I just want to be a back bencher, and I have always made that perfectly clear. I am not interested in being in the Executive. I was asked by the former Secretary of State, and so was Mr. Craig, whether we would serve on the Executive. We said, "No, we oppose it".
I do not think that, in negotiations for an executive, one is entitled to start the bargaining and the horse-trading about policing, detention, law reform and other matters about which we are concerned. We should have been entitled to go into those talks and hear what was in the Government's mind, but we were not to go. There is no Government in Northern Ire- land, and there is no Opposition. But, eventually, the Government of Northern Ireland will take their places on the benches which we at present occupy as the largest party in the Assembly, and the Opposition will go to the opposite side, under the Standing Orders which I helped to draw up.
At least the hon. Member for Salford, West might try to be fair. There is no Government in Northern Ireland, and there cannot be unless we pass the Bill. There is no such thing as an Executive. It is an Executive-designate. That is no Government at all. It cannot be suggested, therefore, that there is either a Government or an Opposition. The trouble with this House is that hon. Members who do not represent Northern Ireland try to overrule the Northern Ireland MPs who are seeking to apply themselves to the problems. The hon. Member says that I want to be in the Goverment and that I do not want to be in the Government. All I want is to be a back bencher. He might be interested to know that I have been at more meetings of the Assembly and have given more time to it than any hon. Member. I have served on the Standing Orders Committee of the Assembly, and I know what I am talking about. If people say they want to wreck the Assembly—