§ Mr. SpeakerI wish to make a statement.
As we approach the end of this Parliament, I am sure that the whole House would wish me to express our deep gratitude for the splendid and devoted services of all who have assisted us in our work—the Clerks at the Table and elsewhere, whose wisdom, experience and advice have been at the service of every hon. Member; the Serjeant at Arms and his staff, and the police, who have protected us and served us in many ways HANSARD, which has faithfully reported all that we have said—wise or unwise; our excellent librarians; those who have delivered our post and handled our telephone communications; those who in cramped rooms have worked the annunciators and sound equipment: those who have prepared our massive daily Order Papers and other documents; those who have printed them through the night so promptly and so faithfully that there is scarcely ever an error; those who have fed us; those who have guarded us and kept scrupulously clean the House and the various offices; our friends in the Parliamentary Press Gallery, who look down on us with a critical and sometimes friendly eye; all who, with us, love Parliament and have helped it to function in the freest democracy in the world.
On behalf of the House I thank them all, and I add my own special indebtedness to the Clerk of the House, Sir Barnett Cocks.