§ Mr. JAMES HOPEWould this, Mr. Speaker, be the proper time to raise a point of Order in connection with certain matters which appear on the Notice Paper, 1964 or shall I wait until after the Ballot for Notices of Motion?
§ Mr. SPEAKERI will hear the hon. Member now.
§ Mr. JAMES HOPEThen I would call your attention to a Notice of Motion which appears on the Order Paper, and which runs thus:—
Mr. Pringle (Foreign Affairs)—To call attention to all Foreign Affairs, and to move a Resolution.I submit that you cannot in any one Resolution call attention to "all" foreign affairs. Such a course transcends the capacity of the human organism; therefore any Motion that purports to attempt to do so falls by weight of its self-absurdity. I would therefore submit, Sir, that a Motion of this character cannot block discussion, and that foreign affairs, as such, may be discussed, unless ruled out by a more specific Motion. I regret I have not been able to give you notice of this matter before, but I only got my Order Paper within the last few minutes.
§ Mr. BOOTHI would like to submit that a proposal to assimilate our practice to that which exists in foreign countries would need to be in these terms: A proposal that foreign affairs should be decided by some Statutory Committee quite apart from the ordinary purview of this House. Any Resolution of that drastic character clearly applies to all foreign affairs, and I submit is in perfect order?
§ Mr. WORTHINGTON EVANSMay I also ask your ruling, Mr. Speaker—
§ Mr. SPEAKEROne at a time. I do not know what it means "to call attention to all foreign affairs." We have no control over the affairs of foreign countries, and we cannot discuss them. The Resolution has no meaning.
§ Mr. WORTHINGTON EVANSMay I ask whether equally an attempt to block the British Empire is out of order? There is a Notice of Motion:—
Mr. James Hogge (British Empire Administration)—To call attention to the administration of the British Empire, and to move a Resolution.
§ Does your ruling also apply to this?
§ Mr. SPEAKERI would like to hear what the hon. Member proposes to say, so that I may discover whether it comes within the limits of the Resolution. I will not commit myself beforehand.
§ Sir J. D. REESMay I ask your ruling, Mr. Speaker, with reference to the Blocking Motion No. 90, which calls attention to the position of outworkers—whether it is sufficient to stop discussion in regard to the affairs of 10,000 married women outworkers who might be considered to have some claim on the friends of the people?
§ Mr. SPEAKERIt is not on the Order Paper.
§ Mr. BOOTHOn the old White Paper—not a recent Motion at all. It is a Motion in the name of the hon. Member for North-West Lanarkshire—"To call attention to the working of the administration of the Insurance Act"—and I submit that that has priority?
§ Mr. SPEAKERI will see.