HC Deb 16 February 1960 vol 617 cc1143-4
Mr. Donnelly

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I wish to raise a point of order on a matter of very great importance to all hon. Members. Because of the delay which we have experienced, I will be very brief and at the end of my remarks I shall seek your guidance and help, Sir.

This is a question of the way in which the possible railway strike was brought to the notice of the House. Last week, the House of Commons entered into a self-denying ordinance. It was agreed by most hon. Members that, while it was possible to have some form of settlement and while negotiations were continuing, the House should enter into a self-denying ordinance.

Mr. Speaker

Order. I should not be fair to other hon. Members unless I asked the hon. Member to state what his point of order is.

Mr. Donnelly

My point of order, Mr. Speaker, is that I am seeking your guidance in a matter affecting the whole House. Last week we entered into a self-denying ordinance when we were threatened with a railway strike. We appreciated that it had a sound basis. When the House met yesterday, it would have been perfectly reasonable, because of the ordinance that the House entered into, for us to have had some form of statement from the Government about the railway strike.

The basis of my point of order is that this was possibly a grave national emergency which affected everybody in every part of the country. The House did not discuss it while the emergency was pending. When the emergency was over it was only right and proper that a statement should have been made to the House. We are ultimately answerable to the nation for some of the various aspects of the settlement—

Mr. Speaker

Order. I am sorry, but I cannot, within the rules of the House, allow the hon. Member to address me except on a point of order. I gladly do that, but he must make it plain that it is a point of order.

Mr. Donnelly

I apologise, Mr. Speaker. I will make it very brief and clear. The point is that the settlement has been discussed in every other forum. It has been discussed on the radio, on television, in the newspapers, and by hon. Members in all parts of the country on all sorts of platforms, but it has not been discussed in the House. The point of order that I wish to address to you, Mr. Speaker, is how we are to retain the attention of the nation if a crisis can come and go without being discussed in the House. What are you, as Speaker of the House of Commons, doing about safeguarding the interests and rights of hon. Members on both sides of the House?

Mr. Speaker

My first duty in safeguarding the rights of hon. Members is not to allow a matter which is not a point of order to be raised in the guise of a point of order. I do not hear a point of order in what the hon. Member has been saying to me. For his assistance, I would suggest that the House and not the Chair decides what it should discuss, except in very exceptional circumstances. The hon. Member might consider addressing himself to the Leader of the House privately, or raising the matter when we have a discussion on business on Thursday.