§ 28. Mr. Piratinasked the Minister of Food what is the number of civic restaurants at the present time, compared with the number in 1948, 1947 and 1946.
§ Mr. StracheyAs the reply contains a number of figures, I will, with permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Mr. PiratinCan my right hon. Friend give an indication of how serious is the decline?
§ Mr. StracheyThere has been, I regret to say, a considerable decline in the number of civic restaurants.
§ Mr. PiratinMay I put a further supplementary question?
§ Mr. SpeakerThe trouble has been that we have been taking 50 Questions a day ever since Christmas, as against 70 before. This is due to a lot of supplementary questions, some of which have been very long, and the answers to which have also been very long. I would commend to the House that if we want really to make Question Time useful, one must think before one asks a supplementary question. A slogan which we used to see when travelling in the train during the war was, "Is your journey really necessary?" I wonder whether I might suggest to hon. Members that they should ask themselves, "Is my supplementary really necessary?"
§ Mr. PiratinOn a point of Order, Mr. Speaker. With great respect, I have not put my supplementary question. The Minister, as you will have heard, merely said that he would answer the Question in the OFFICIAL REPORT. All I asked him was whether he would indicate if there was a decline, and he said that there was, and I want to put a supplementary question which is a part of my Question.
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Member asked "What is the number of civic restaurants?" Surely that is a simple Question which does not lead to a supplementary question.
§ Following are the figures at the nearest convenient dates:
| 4th February, 1949 (latest available date) | 678 |
| 3rd January, 1948 | 773 |
| 1st February, 1947 | 1,176 |
| 5th January, 1946 | 1,373 |