§ Q4. Sir J. Langford-Holtasked the Prime Minister what consideration has been given to making recordings of proceedings of the House, so that matters of historical interest may be preserved.
§ The Prime MinisterThis proposal has been made previously, but has not commended itself to the House. I am not aware of any substantial body of opinion which would favour it now.
§ Sir J. Langford-HoltWill my right hon. Friend bear clearly in mind that I am not suggesting contemporary use of the recordings, but there are many great speeches of the past, notably those of my right hon. Friend the Member for Woodford (Sir W. Churchill), which have been lost for all time, and it would have been great if we had been able to retain them?
§ The Prime MinisterIf, as it were, they were to be put into the museum for the future, that is a rather different question, but even then I think that the technical difficulties would be quite great.
§ Mr. BellengerDoes the Prime Minister realise that the corridors and the Library of the House are full of recordings of previous proceedings in this 642 House and that the further we get away from the period the less are people interested in what Gladstone said in 1894?
§ The Prime MinisterYes, but I have often heard reference to it all the same.