§ Mr. O'CONNORWith the leave of the House, I rise to make a personal explanation. Yesterday the right hon. Gentleman the Leader of the Opposition was good enough to devote a considerable portion of his speech to quoting extracts from a, speech of my own. I had not the good fortune to be present, but I see from the OFFICIAL REPORT this morning that the right hon. Gentleman spoke of me in these terms:
I cannot do better than read a paragraph from a speech delivered by the hon. and learned Member for Central Nottingham (Mr. O'Connor) on the 20th of January last, in which he said this—and it is my own feeling about the present situation:'The Prime Minister and his colleagues are inviting the House 'of Commons to spend the 11 weeks between now and Easter discussing perfectly futile subjects which have no relevancy to the vital needs of the country. We enter our protest against that procedure.' "—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 3rd February, 1932; Vol. 261, cols. 140–1.]There is much more in the same vein. What I desire to point out to you, Sir, and to the House is that these remarks are mine and that I stand by them entirely, but they were made in January of 1931, and related to the Government who were in office at that time.
§ Mr. LANSBURYI very humbly apologise to the hon. and learned Member. The fact is that we have only just tumbled out of January, and I had really forgotten that we were in 1932. I withdraw, and am very sorry.