§ Mr. SMITHERSMay I ask you a question, Mr. Speaker, seeing that Questions are over before the expiration of the Question hour?
§ Mr. SPEAKERThe rule is that if Question Time is not fully occupied with the questions on the Paper, questions can be asked of which notice has been given, but not questions of which no notice has been given, unless it is a point of Order.
§ Mr. SMITHERSIn a way it is a point of Order. I only ask for your guidance. The Debate on Unemployment on Friday and Monday and until 7.30 on Tuesday occupies 2,224 inches of space in the columns of the OFFICIAL REPORT, and 18 Ministers and ex-Ministers spoke 1,430 inches, which is well over half the total. May I say at once that I am not in any way casting any reflection on the decision of the Chair, but it was agreed by all parties that that was to be a Debate in which suggestions should be invited from all Members of this great Parliament, and 515 may I ask, accordingly, if you will be so good, when the next Session begins, as to repeat your request to Members, and especially to Ministers and ex-Ministers, to restrict their remarks to a limited number of inches in the OFFICIAL REPORT. I will not go into details, and I will not mention any names, because comparisons are odious, but with great respect I would like to give you this list of the inches occupied by the speeches in the OFFICIAL REPORT, and would ask you to look at it, and you will then see, from the statistics I have taken out, that certain Ministers and ex-Ministers have had quite long talkie films and prevented some of us who wish to make contributions from getting a few inches in the OFFICIAL REPORT at all.
§ Mr. HERBERT WILLIAMSFurther to that point of Order. Would it not be the case that the speeches in question would be very much shorter if the rule with regard to reading speeches were more rigidly enforced?
§ Mr. SPEAKERI do not know about that. I have before expressed my views as to the length of the speeches made in this House—if not in inches, at any rate in minutes—and I cannot have another opportunity of making that remark, which I addressed to the House at the beginning of this Parliament, unless I take this opportunity of reminding the House that I still hold the same views. Beyond that hon. Members will know that I have no powers in this matter.
§ Sir AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINMay I venture to submit to you that the supplementary question put by my hon. Friend the Member for South Croydon (Mr. H. Williams), deals with a matter which does fall within the powers of the Chair, and I would ask whether you would consider making some announcement to the House of your intention to enforce the rule, which has been allowed to fall too much into abeyance, against the reading of speeches, whether by Ministers, ex-Ministers, or other hon. Members.
§ Mr. SPEAKERCertainly, if my attention is called to the fact that hon. Members are reading the whole of their speech, I should remind them of the rule.