§ Mr. EdenMay I, with respect, draw your attention, Mr. Speaker, to a Ruling which you gave on Wednesday of last week during the Report stage of the Coal 43 Industry Nationalisation Bill? The Ruling is to be found in HANSARD, column 2020, and it seems to me that it might be interpreted as meaning that you were guided in this selection of Amendments by considerations other than those of their importance and merit. I am sure, Sir, that you would not desire such an impression to remain. May we therefore have your guidance as to your practice in the selection of Amendments on the Paper?
§ Mr. SpeakerI confess to a little surprise at there being any misunderstanding of my remarks. I considered that for the Report stage of the Coal Industry Nationalisation Bill I had been very generous in my selection of Amendments—[HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear."]— I wish to be heard in silence—and several were included which their importance and merit would not normally have induced me to choose. I had hoped this course would have commended itself to Members generally, and I assumed that debate would be short on those which dealt with minor points or had been partially covered in previous Amendments. Report stage is unlike Committee, and the selection of Amendments should be confined to the larger issues and new points of substance, with due regard to the adequacy of previous discussions on the Committee stage.