BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE. (Hansard, 25 July 1933)

§ Mr. J. WALLACE
I do not wish to detain the House more than two or three minutes, but I want to enter a protest against the inadequate time which has 2556 been allotted to Scottish business in this House this week. I understand that originally two days were set aside for the discussion of Scottish business only, but owing to the action of the Opposition this time was cut down until we have had only something like two hours in which to discuss a very important Scottish Estimate. I do not blame the Government for this curtailment of time. We discuss in Supply the subjects which are selected by the Opposition, but I suggest that the right hon. Member the Leader of the Opposition has not consulted the best interests of the House or of Scotland in using his influence to curtail discussion on the Scottish Estimates. When the Agricultural Marketing Bill was before the House last week the Chairman was not inclined to call on Scottish Members and inform them that they would have a full day this week for the discussion of agriculture in Scotland. That promise has failed to take effect on account of the action of the right hon. Gentleman. I suggest that he has been badly advised. He has not a sufficient number of Scottish Members in his party, and those who advise him apparently do not understand Scottish affairs. For example, one of the right hon. Gentleman's supporters, the hon. Member for Dumbarton Burghs (Mr. Kirkwood), in an impassioned speech tonight, said that the only Scottish Members who took the slightest interest in the working men of Scotland and who spoke in their interests in this House were the Labour Members.
There are a good many of us here tonight who wished to take up matters of vital importance to the working men of Scotland, but through the action of the right hon. Gentleman we have been debarred from doing so. I am very glad to see that one Scottish Member of the Labour party has arrived at this important juncture, even though he is a little late. I suggest that the right hon. Gentleman and his party have butchered Scottish interests to make a Socialist holiday. What is the idea at the back of the right hon. Gentleman's mind in persuading the Government that he wished to have only an hour or two for Scottish affairs because he wished to discuss the question of oil? We are all aware of the enormous importance of the distillation of oil from coal to this country; that is common ground, but it is no excuse.

§ Mr. SPEAKER
I would remind the hon. Member that the only questions which may be raised on the Adjournment are those for which some Minister is responsible.

§ Mr. WALLACE
I follow your Ruling, Sir, but I have the idea that what I am complaining about is a joint responsibility. His Majesty's Government have not taken a sufficiently strong line with the right hon. Gentleman. I apologise if I seemed to have transgressed, but I do not wish to place the whole of the responsibility upon the shoulders of the Leader of the Opposition. I think the Minister is also responsible, because the Leader of the Opposition and his friends persuaded the Government that it would be much better to have what will prove to be a futile and inconclusive discussion upon the World Economic Conference, which will take place on the Appropriation Bill, at a time when the discussion of oil might well have taken place. In a word, I wish to protest very strongly against this neglect of Scottish interests which, I assure the House, is very much resented by the Scottish people.

§ Mr. LANSBURY
These are the middle of the dog days, and it would ill become me to keep my colleagues more than a minute or two longer. I join in this discussion, not because I am responsible for anything—[Laughter]—well, remember that I am one of a party of 50 out of 615 Members, and how one can be responsible in those circumstances Lord only knows. If the hon. Member for Dunfermline (Mr. J. Wallace), and those who feel so indignant would take the trouble to understand the Rules of the House, they would know that they have 50 minutes from now till half-past eleven, which might be devoted to these important Scottish matters, and which the hon. Member would have been able to discuss. On the Adjournment Motion, hon. Members may raise questions with Ministers, and the hon. Gentleman, when he has been here a little longer—

§ Mr. J. WALLACE
I have been here longer than you Have.

§ Mr. LANSBURY
—will understand how to get his points home. This is a wonderful place when you know your way round. The hon. Gentleman has 2558 just exhibited his complete ignorance of how to use the opportunities that this House affords to hon. Members who have been as indignant as he has been about the neglect of Scotland. Here is the champion of Scotland, who has 50 minutes in which to ventilate his grievance.

§ Mr. WALLACE
I have done it.

§ Mr. LANSBURY
No, what the hon. Member has done is to ventilate a grievance against an inoffensive person who has no responsibility. I am very sorry for him, and I hope that he will be better educated next Session.

§ Sir A. SINCLAIR
We cannot let the right hon. Gentleman off quite so easily. I associate myself with the protest on behalf of Scotland that has been made by the hon. Member for Dunfermline (Mr. J. Wallace). The right hon. Gentleman is not quite so irresponsible as he sometimes conveys to this House. In 'this matter, at any rate, it is clear that he has a certain responsibility for advising the Leader of the House, who is finally responsible, as to the business taken. Nobody can dispute that. That is his responsibility as the Leader of the Opposition. It is not treating Scotland fairly, and the Scottish people will not consider that the right hon. Gentleman is treating them fairly, when. he suggests that the Scottish Estimates could properly be discussed in 50 minutes.

§ Mr. SPEAKER
I am afraid that we cannot pursue this attack on the right hon. Gentleman.

§ Sir A. SINCLAIR
I am not suggesting the right hon. Gentleman was responsible for the choice of business. That responsibility lies with the 'Leader of the House, but the right hon. Gentleman is responsible for the words he has just uttered and it is those words to which I am replying. He says that at 10 minutes to 11, after the Estimates have been divided upon, is a suitable time to discuss Scottish Estimates. The Scottish people do not think Scottish Estimates should be taken in that hole in a corner way. They think that Scottish agriculture should be given as long as English agriculture, and that a full day should be devoted to it. It is because the right hon. Gentleman has shown himself blind to 2559 these interests that I join the protest of the hon. Member for Dunfermline.

§ Mr. MACLEAN
The right hon. Gentleman has shown great indignation, but, if he had approached the Whips of the Government which he supports, he would have understood that this particular complaint cuts no ice with the Opposition.

§ Sir A. SINCLAIR
It will with the people of Scotland.

§ Mr. MACLEAN
It will not with the people of Scotland either when they know what the arrangements were. The Members of the Government and the Scottish Whips know perfectly well that the second allotted day for Scotland should have been taken a fortnight ago but we were approached by the Government representative who informed us that they were not ready and suggested it should be taken later. We fixed a day and took it on the day which seemed most convenient to the Government. Therefore, the responsibility rests not with my right hon. Friend but with the Government which the right hon. Gentleman supports and for which he has voted in all the Divisions to-night. May I also point out to him something that took place when he was Secretary of State for Scotland when, for the first time in the history of Parliament, the Opposition was sufficiently courteous to all the Scottish Members in this House to decline to exercise their prerogative and to fix the business to be discussed. Instead, they approached the Whips of all the parties and asked them what business they desired to discuss.
2560 Only last year on the Scottish Estimates Members of the right hon. Gentleman's own party and of the Scottish Tories congratulated the Leader of the Opposition on giving to the Scottish Members, irrespective of party, the right to raise the particular matters of Scottish administration on which they had a grievance.

§ Sir A. SINCLAIR
Did you do it this year?

§ Mr. MACLEAN
Certainly; this is another instance of a certain class of person rushing in where angels fear to tread. The hon. Member ought to be cautious and make sufficient inquiries before he brings up a matter of this kind.

§ Mr. WALLACE
I stand by everything I said.

§ Mr. MACLEAN
And no one would support you more than I if you had a just case. If the hon. Member has a just cause, the justice of the cause lies against the leaders of his own party in fixing the Scottish date to suit themselves or to suit the particular occasion when they thought they were ready to have a Debate on these Scottish matters. The Opposition are free from blame. The blame rests either with the hon. Member himself and his colleague behind him, or with the Government. He can fix the responsibility where he thinks fit, but at any rate he cannot put the cap on our heads.