§ Mr. BAXTEROn a point of Order. I should be very grateful, Mr. Speaker, if you would give to me and some of my hon. Friends guidance in respect of something that came out in yesterday's Vote of Censure Debate. When the right hon. Member for Wakefield (Mr. Greenwood) was putting the case for the Opposition he pointed to these benches and referred to the lack of support given to the Government by private Members during the Debate. I and many others were very anxious to express our approval of the policy of the Government in connection with Italy and Abyssinia. May I give a brief résumé of the Debate yesterday? There were, approximately, 357 minutes devoted to the Vote of Censure, eliminating the strange interlude when one of the Socialist ex-Ministers drew attention to certain Welsh affairs. Of those 357 minutes, Members of the Government Front Bench occupied 86 minutes. The Opposition, including the right hon. Member for Caithness and Sutherland (Sir A. Sinclair), occupied 175 minutes, and Privy Councillors and the hon. Member for the Combined English Universities (Miss Rathbone) took 82 minutes, while Conservative back benchers—those of us who are in a majority because the electorate of the country wished us to be in a majority—took only 14 minutes. It is impossible for us to give a proper impression to the country of the real feeling of the House in those circumstances, and I would ask for your guidance as to how we may speak for the rights of the majority.
§ Mr. SPEAKERThe hon. Member raises a grievance which I have often heard before, namely, that too much time is occupied by other than back benchers. Whether that is the case or not, I should not like to say, but I do not see how the difficulty can be overcome.
§ Mr. BAXTERMay I say one word more? One private Member on the back benches opposite spoke for 45 minutes, which I think is too long.
§ Mr. SPEAKERThat is not a point of Order.
§ Mr. EMMOTTIs not the really important thing the weight of argument, and not the time taken to deploy it?