HOME INFORMATION SERVICES (Hansard, 7 November 1966)

§ 35. Sir Knox Cunningham
asked the Paymaster-General if he will be prepared to answer about the co-ordination of home information services.

§ The Paymaster-General (Mr. George Wigg)
Yes, Sir.

§ Sir Knox Cunningham
Does that mean that the right hon. Gentleman in future will be less bashful about his duties? Will he say whether he had a hand in co-ordinating the information about the escape of the spy, Blake?

§ Mr. Wigg
I shall not be any more or any less bashful than I have been in the past. I shall carry out the instructions given me by the Prime Minister which have been explained to the House over and over again. As the hon. Gentleman is so solicitous for my welfare, may I be equally so for his? I suggest that he improves his reading capacity and reflects upon what he reads.

§ Mr. Lubbock
Is the right hon. Gentleman prepared to answer a Question about the information services concerning religious discrimination in Northern Ireland?

§ Mr. Wigg
No. I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply which I have given. If any hon. Gentleman cares to put down a Question about the home information services, I shall be only too delighted to answer it. The more Questions hon. Gentlemen put down, the better I shall be pleased.

§ Mr. Lipton
Is my hon. Friend aware that an overwhelming minority of hon. Members know that he doing a grand job of work? In this connection, will he say what information he has about tape recordings of speeches made by hon. Members in Rhodesia?

§ Mr. Wigg
I assume that the hon. Gentleman is referring to statements made to the Press by the hon. and gallant Member for New Forest (Sir O. Crosthwaite-Eyre). His statement to the Press was on all-fours with his broadcast in Rhodesia. It was a piece of disgraceful nonsense. I do not possess any tapes. If any hon. Gentleman, including the hon. and gallant Gentleman for New Forest, cares to go to the Library, he can see in the world news service a report of the hon. and gallant Gentleman's broadcast and read for himself just how disgraceful that broadcast was.

§ Lord Balniel
On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. A very sharp attack has been made by the right hon. Gentleman against one of my hon. Friends. May I ask whether, in accordance with the normal courtesies of the House, the right hon. Gentleman gave notice to my hon. Friend?

§ Mr. Wigg
If I could be as accurate a reader of the signs as the hon. Gentleman suggests, I should be much better off than I am. I did not know that this supplementary question was going to be asked. [Interruption.] Very good. The hon. and gallant Gentleman could have been here if he had wanted to. But I was not making a sharp attack. If he thinks that what I said constitutes a sharp attack——

Several Hon. Members rose
——

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. I was addressed on a point of order. The simple answer is that the right hon. Gentleman's remarks arose out of a supplementary question. It would have been impossible to give the hon. and gallant Member for New Forest notice of something that arose on a supplementary question.

§ Mr. Dodds-Parker
On a point of order. Was not that clearly a planted supplementary question?

§ Mr. Speaker
That is not a point of order.

§ Mr. Tapsell
Is it not within the immediate recollection of the House that in answering that supplementary question the right hon. Gentleman was consulting notes prepared beforehand?

§ Mr. Wigg
If I consulted notes—[HON. MEMBERS: "Point of order."]—Further to that point of order. If any hon. Member thinks that I consulted notes he is entitled to look at them, and I pass a copy across the Table. [Interruption.]

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. We are wasting valuable Question time.

§ Mr. Hogg
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, is this object here in order?

§ Mr. Speaker
I hope that the right. hon. and learned Gentleman will allow me to deal with what is and is not in order.

§ Sir Knox Cunningham
On a point of order. Owing to the unsatisfactory nature of the reply, I give notice that I shall raise the matter at the earliest possible opportunity.

§ Mr. Hogg
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I ask seriously, not as a matter of joking, whether it is really in order for the Paymaster-General to throw an object across the Chamber and for another hon. Member to retrieve it? I suggest that this is wholly contrary to the practice of the House.

§ Mr. Speaker
In answer to the point of order, neither of the episodes added anything to the dignity of Parliament.