§ Mr. Leslie Hale (Oldham, West)I have a Petition to present to this honourable House on behalf of over 2,000 of Her Majesty's loyal subjects residing in and about the County Borough of Oldham in the County Palatine of Lancaster and mostly employed by Messrs. Pratt Brothers and Company, Limited, engineers, of Oldham.
The Petition briefly sets out to express the great indignation of the undersigned with regard to the proposed cuts in the National Health Service, the subject of the Bill which is being presented today. I think it probably right that I should inform you, Sir, and the House that this Petition was drawn up by the shop stewards and engineers employed by Pratt Brothers and Company, Limited, and that the Clerk at the Table has expressed a tentative view that it is not drawn with that nicety of expression and clarity of diction in which a Petition should be presented to this House.
But I have not, however, been able to find any rule which invalidates this 802 Petition on that ground. Therefore, with your permission, Mr. Speaker, I propose to present it. I would add that I have made inquiries and I gather than there is no copy of Erskine May in the canteen of Messrs. Pratt Brothers and Company, Limited.
Mr. SpeakerI am grateful to the hon. Member for having given me notice of this. The petitioners pray that the charges for the National Health Service benefits be rescinded. The Bill which authorises the charges is now before the House and is not yet a Statute. The charges can, therefore, not yet be rescinded. The petitioners could pray that the Bill be not passed, or if the Bill had been passed, they could pray for legislation to repeal it, but this Petition prays for something which it is not in the power of the House to grant, namely, that the House should reverse something which it has not yet done. For those reasons, I am of the opinion that the Petition is out of order.
§ Mr. HaleMay I venture respectfully to submit to you, Mr. Speaker, that the request that the charges should be rescinded contains a very clear implication that the House should be requested that the charges should not be imposed? This is a spontaneous expression of great indignation, strongly expressed throughout the County Borough of Oldham. Would it not be possible for me to deposit this Petition in the bag in the same way as petitions out of order are nevertheless permitted to be deposited?
§ Mr. J. Enoch Powell (Wolverhampton, South-West)May I suggest that the charges against which this Petition is directed are those imposed by the Socialist Government last year?
Mr. SpeakerThe fact in itself would not invalidate the Petition, but I think that the objection which I have mentioned—namely, that in the Petition we are asked to rescind some charges which are not yet made—is fatal to the Petition. If the hon. Member wishes to put his Petition in the bag, that can be done, but I cannot have it received by the House, because it is out of order.