Mr Henry Brooke: rose—
Mr Henry Brooke: The House has been waiting to hear from the hon. Gentleman the reasons which he said he would give us in favour, on education grounds, of a universal system of comprehensive education. He has utterly and lamentably failed to give us that. He rested his case exclusively on the weakness of the 11-plus examination, as though he had never heard of any other systems of selection. I believe in...
Mr Henry Brooke: I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend the Refreshment Houses Acts, 1860 and 1964; and for purposes connected therewith. I can hardly claim this as a maiden speech, as it is 28 years since I first entered the House and I have introduced a great number of Government Bills in the meantime. However, this is the first occasion on which I have sought to introduce a Private...
Mr Henry Brooke: As much the greatest material risk after a nuclear attack would be uncontrolled spread of fire, could the right hon. Gentleman explain, under his new scheme, from where he will get the additional trained fire-fighting personnel who will be needed over and above the peace-time fire services?
Mr Henry Brooke: Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that almost everybody will wish well to the Commission and the Commissioners, but that it would help us greatly if the Minister could tell Parliament clearly whether the Government's main purpose is educational or Socialist?
Mr Henry Brooke: I find myself wondering which is the greater danger to a successful outcome of this terribly difficult situation—the Left wing of the Labour Party, or speeches like that of my hon. Friend the Member for Yarmouth (Mr. Fell). I thought that my hon. Friend used his luck in the Ballot to singularly small advantage this afternoon, and I disagree so fundamentally with the terms of his Motion...
Mr Henry Brooke: I do not think I am called upon to express a view on that. I am addressing myself to the terms of the Motion. The Motion speaks of expressions and acts of loyalty, and here we see glaringly an act of the grossest disloyalty. It is better that these things should be said plainly than in veiled words.
Mr Henry Brooke: No. I have given way once. This to me is the essence of our dispute with Mr. Smith and the other ex-Ministers, and all the actions of this Parliament of ours must be designed to lead the people of Rhodesia to realise the enormity of the act of disloyalty which has been committed by those ex-Ministers in their names. We can still remain friends with the people of Rhodesia, white and black,...
Mr Henry Brooke: What we are debating this evening is nothing less than whether we shall be able in this country to avoid the atmosphere of racial bitterness and outbreaks of racial hatred which hang like a menacing cloud permanently over America. This is something to which we must all set ourselves. Listening to the Home Secretary, I had no doubt about his good will, but I was not quite so sure about his...
Mr Henry Brooke: If the Committee is thought necessary, well and good, but the Committee certainly should not be allowed to cause delay to action which the Government themselves have said is speedily needed. It would be perfectly possible for the Government to ask Parliament straight away for powers in this respect, which they themselves have said are needed speedily, and then to carry out the longer-term...
Mr Henry Brooke: I think the Government have in fact followed that line of action on several occasions already. I was not making a fresh appeal to them to pursue again their frequent course of action. I hope I shall not be out of order, Mr. Lever, in comparing the procedure regarding Commonwealth immigrants with that affecting aliens. Control of alien immigration is exercised under a code which is now 50...
Mr Henry Brooke: What does the hon. Lady mean by "getting rid of the problem"? There are one million people here already and their number will multiply. How can there be any question of getting rid of them?
Mr Henry Brooke: The hon. Member for Nelson and Colne (Mr. Sydney Silverman) knows that I am a supporter of the Bill and I would be as reluctant as he to see it fall, but I cannot support his Motion that the House should agree with the Lords in this Amendment. The Amendment has been profoundly criticised from all quarters of the House. I think that everyone was impressed by the speech of my hon. Friend the...
Mr Henry Brooke: There is a new factor here.
Mr Henry Brooke: With the leave of the House, I should like to put this to the Home Secretary. There will be, if these words are embodied in the Bill, a new factor, and that is that people most interested in a particular man's case will have been given reason to think in their own minds that he is likely to be released at about a certain date. It may be a wrong interpretation by them upon the judge's words,...
Mr Henry Brooke: As it was I who set up this inquiry, the first under the new powers given by the 1964 Act, may I be allowed to associate myself with the Home Secretary's expression of appreciation to Mr. James for his assiduous work? As the Commissioner of Police was criticised, and as I was criticised, as being responsible for the Metropolitan Police, and for having allowed Sergeant Challenor to be on duty...
Mr Henry Brooke: Without wishing to criticise the statement, at any rate till we have had a chance to consider it fully, may I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he recollects that about 16 months ago, on the Expiring Laws Continuance Bill, the present Prime Minister led an attack and divided the House against it on the argument that quotas and control arrangements could be satisfactorily worked out by...
Mr Henry Brooke: What does the Chancellor judge has worsened between April and July to make these serious restrictions and postponements necessary now? If they are necessary now, as they may be, why did he not foresee that at the time of his Budget?
Mr Henry Brooke: I had not intended to take part in the Third Reading debate. I expressed my views on Second Reading and both sides of the House were good enough to listen to me on that occasion with attention. I have nothing to retract from what I said then and very little to add. Afterwards I was congratulated—I do not know why—on having made a courageous speech. It did not seem to require courage...
Mr Henry Brooke: I have that here. My right hon. and learned Friend chose two sets of three years whereas the figures which I quoted were rather more extensive and far-reaching as they covered two sets of six years. These figures show that whereas the abolition of the death penalty for non-capital murder in 1957 ought, on the theory of the unique deterrent, to have brought about a tremendous fall in the ratio...
