Mr Frederick Gough: On a point of order, Sir Godfrey. I gather that the hon. Member for Leek (Mr. Harold Davies) called a point of order but did not stand up to refer to my hon. Friend the Member for Kidderminster as a moron. Surely that is not a correct method of addressing or referring to an hon. Member of this Committee.
Mr Frederick Gough: I am very conscious of the fact that it is many months since I last addressed the Committee, through no fault of mine, and I feel like asking the Committee's indulgence. However, as I intend to "have a go" at the hon. Member for Workington (Mr. Peart), I do not propose to ask for that concession. As a back bencher, much as I admire the hon. Members concerned, I take the greatest possible...
Mr Frederick Gough: The hon. Gentleman says it has been mentioned, but there is no harm in making the statement again. I would not, and could not, agree to or support a policy which was systematically one of restrictionism, but the Government's policy is not one of systematic restrictionism. It is one of getting on to a reasonable balance. It is one which, as its record shows, has increased farm production and...
Mr Frederick Gough: asked the Postmaster-General if he will now establish a sub-post office in the southern part of Crawley to meet the growing and urgent needs of the people in the Southgate neighbourhood.
Mr Frederick Gough: Is my hon. Friend aware that there may be a sub-post office in that neighbourhood, but that there many thousands of people still have to walk a very long way? Will she convey to my right hon. Friend a request that perhaps a small delegation may be allowed to see him to discuss this matter further?
Mr Frederick Gough: May I ask my hon. Friend, for the purpose of the record, if she does not realise that the new site of the post office is such that old people particularly find it rather difficult to reach it, because they have to cross two very dangerous main thoroughfares, and it is for that reason that I have asked that the matter should be more fully gone into?
Mr Frederick Gough: As I understand, my right hon. Friend said that he was going to give only a design study contract.
Mr Frederick Gough: Mr. Frederick Gough (Horsham) rose—
Mr Frederick Gough: I am grateful to the hon. and learned Gentleman for protecting me against two right hon. Members. I wanted to ask him a simple question. It occurred to me that what he was saying about my right hon. Friend was that the action he is taking precludes back benchers from raising Questions in the House of Commons if any of our constituents are dismissed and we think they have not received adequate...
Mr Frederick Gough: I fully appreciate the right hon Gentleman's indignation and nobody in the Committee is better able than he in expressing it. But as the right hon. Gentleman has shown such great indignation, could he explain why it was that the Government of which he was a member did not enshrine this very thing in the first Act that they passed?
Mr Frederick Gough: The hon. Member for Dundee, East (Mr. G. M. Thomson) made two points to which a reply should be given. First, he spoke of the share which the people in the new towns should have out of the prosperity of the towns, that is, from the surpluses. I am very interested in this, for I represent one of the new towns. This matter is clearly mentioned in the Clause as it stands. It is provided that...
Mr Frederick Gough: I hope that the hon. Member for Pontypool (Mr. Abse) will forgive me if I do not enter into an England versus Wales match. As the representative of the first town that will come within the orbit of the Bill when it becomes an Act of Parliament, I hope that at this late hour the House will allow me to say a few words. I have been through all the stages of the Bill and I do not think that...
Mr Frederick Gough: The next point upon which the hon. and learned Member dilated was that of the good landlord. That is precisely what is in the minds of the ordinary men and women in Crawley. They do not believe at this stage that their local authority, as at present constituted, with the very small amount of experience that it has, will be a good landlord. They have a good deal of reason for this view, as I...
Mr Frederick Gough: The majority of Socialists on the committees have hogged every single appointment there is. Forty per cent. of the electorate of Crawley are not represented on any hospital, school or any other of the various committees which normally have representation from minority views. In other words, they have done a "Lewisham". Will people who do that sort of thing be good landlords? It is not...
Mr Frederick Gough: It was 64 per cent. before, now it is 60 per cent.
Mr Frederick Gough: Mr. Frederick Gough (Horsham) On a point of order. I distinctly heard the right hon. Member for Huyton (Mr. H. Wilson) say to my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade, "That was a deliberate lie".
Mr Frederick Gough: asked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance what positive steps are being taken by his Department to bring to the notice of limbless and other seriously-disabled ex-Service men the full extent of their entitlements.
Mr Frederick Gough: I thank my right hon. Friend for that reply, and I should also like to pay tribute to the devotedness of his staff in this matter. Nevertheless, would he consider arranging, through the television authorities—either the B.B.C. or the I.T.A.—for periodical television programmes to this effect? It would appear that many disabled people still do not know what benefits they can draw.
Mr Frederick Gough: asked the Paymaster-General if he is aware that the Southern Electricity Board has applied to the Minister of Power for his statutory consent and for deemed planning permission to erect an overhead electricity line running from Midhurst to Marley Common; and what is the policy of the Government to protect beautiful country against such encroachments.
Mr Frederick Gough: Mr. Frederick Gough (Horsham) rose—
