HC Deb 19 April 1971 vol 815 cc901-2

Order for Second Reading read.

7.47 p.m.

The Solicitor-General (Sir Geoffrey Howe)

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.

The Bill serves to bring up-to-date some of the fairly antique provisions of our coinage law. The Bill has been considered and approved by the Joint Committee and has been through all its stages in the other place.

It is perhaps worth noting that the Bill preserves in our modernised law a number of antique provisions dealing with what is known as the trial of the pyx, which is still to be carried out by a jury of competent freemen of the mystery of goldsmiths of the City of London". It is perhaps pleasing to note that such antiquities survive even in this hastily modernising world.

7.48 p.m.

Mr. Ronald King Murray (Edinburgh, Leith)

That antiquity has been preserved, but another antiquity which was much more material has been rejected, namely, the provision that the Chancellor of the Exchequer should be Governor of the Mint in Scotland as well as Governor of the Mint in England. I cannot see why that much more material tradition should not have been preserved.

We on this side are aware that the present Conservative Party is not so traditionally-minded as its predecessors and seems to have parted with many of the better traditions of Conservatism, but this failure is regrettable. A great mistake has been made by keeping the trial of the pyx instead of keeping the governorship of the Mint in Scotland. I hope that this precedent will not be followed in future, because it is inappropriate for a matter of this kind to be dealt with as if it were a mere technicality. It is a matter of the greatest importance to the people of Scotland and to the people of England, who came together by partnership agreement. It is very important that we should remember that partnership, which is the basis of the State today.

I repeat that it is regrettable that a matter of this kind should be disposed of as if it were a mere technicality. It is much more than that and I do not think that it had any place in a consolidation Measure.

Question put and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time.

Bill committed to a Committee of the whole House.—[Mr. Eyre.]

Committee tomorrow.