I am posing the question. I should not have the temerity to tell the Executive what its policy should be. I am certain that the Secretary of State will not be in that position. The Executive would probably tell him, if there were a conflict of policies, that it was an elected body and that it would carry out its policies.

The Executive has already discussed many of the social and economic problems. The Council of Ireland has done so. We want to see real political intercourse take place. It will have to take place if the Northern Ireland Assembly is to get off the ground and if the Council of Ireland provisions are to work. We all recognise that there are great difficulties.

The hon. and gallant Member for Down, South made a most interesting and excellent speech. I did not necessarily agree with its contents. He put the arguments cogently. There was one error in what he said. That was a basic error. He is too pessimistic about the eventual outcome. There are people, Unionists like himself, who are endeavouring to make this work. There are also Unionists who are opposed to it. But what amazes me is the number of Unionists who have come out in favour of working the new set-up.

I know the hon. and gallant Gentleman's close association in the past with Mr. Faulkner and that he does not lightly break with him politically, but there is a chance that this Assembly can work, and I hope that his pessimism is wrong. I hope, too, that the hon. Member for Antrim, North will be able to turn his talents to help make it work.

Finally, I want to say to my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Ulster that one of the most memorable speeches she has made in this House was when she talked about working-class Protestants and Roman Catholics in Belfast and the conditions they live in. She spoke of how their aspirations were really in line were it not for this 300-year-old religious barrier dividing them. I agreed with her.

Unfortunately, they do not follow her in the type of policies she is propounding to this House or to Northern Ireland. But I believe that we must get the people, particularly in Belfast, away from mythology on to the practicalities of the political situation and of what can be done in social and economic policy, in employment and housing, which may entail public ownership of certain sectors of land, more public investment and more industrial development.

I look forward with confidence to the work of my hon. Friend the Member for Belfast, West (Mr. Fitt) in the new Executive. It does not behove my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Ulster to criticise Mr. Faulkner and my hon. Friend the Member for Belfast, West for coming together when we see her and the hon. Member for Antrim, North joining together on a specific point of total opposition to the new Assembly. It does not behove either of them to criticise in that manner.