HC Deb 18 November 1952 vol 507 cc1582-4
48. Mr. Glanville

asked the Prime Minister what arrangements are proposed to include contingents representing all aspects of industrial life in the Coronation Procession in order to make the Procession fully representative of the industrial as well as the military power of Britain.

The Prime Minister

The arrangements for the Procession are in the hands of the Coronation Commission and I expect that they will recommend that only military formations should be included. [HON. MEMBERS: "Why?"] You must think of the spectators. Representatives of industry will of course be invited to Westminster Abbey and many places will be available for them in the stands on the route.

Mr. Glanville

Is the Prime Minister aware that I am not asking that the representatives of industry should be included? I am asking that the actual producers of wealth from every industry in the country, agricultural workers, miners and steel workers—a contingent from each one—should be in the Procession.

I know that the Prime Minister is a great lover of glamour and the limelight. I know that there is nothing in which he excels more than in that; but these representatives are not the men that produce the wealth of the country. Is he aware that I want the industrial workers who made all those Tory millionaires on the other side of the House to be included?

The Prime Minister

When I have had the advantage of reading HANSARD I will most carefully consider the question of outside candidates for places in the procession.

Mr. Rankin

On a point of order. When I was putting my supplementary question, Mr. Speaker, I gave way to a point of order which had been raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Consett (Mr. Glanville). Why then should that rob me of the right to put my supplementary question?

Mr. Speaker

First of all, the hon. Member is mistaken if he thinks that he has a right to ask a supplementary question. He has not got that, though I try to accommodate hon. Members in that respect as fairly and as well as I can. In fact, the hon. Member for Consett (Mr. Glanville) did not rise to a point of order. He rose at the end of a very lengthy supplementary question by the hon. Member for Tradeston, and I thought that the hon. Member for Tradeston had finished his speech. He is now too late.

Mr. Rankin

Further to my point of order. I submit that my supplementary question was not of undue length. In any event, I was raising a point which is of great interest to a great many people and to which the Prime Minister was giving his close attention. I gave way on appeal to a point of order and I submit that I ought to be allowed to complete my supplementary question, which was not a speech.

Mr. Godfrey Nicholson

We have not suspended the Rule.

Mr. Speaker

There are many points of great interest at Question time, but other hon. Members have rights too and I have to watch over that.