§ Sir G. NabarroOn a point of order. You will recall, Mr. Speaker, that several weeks ago I asked for your protection for the Sassenach majority in this House from the garrulous behaviour of the Scots. On every occasion that the Minister for the bureaucracy is set down to answer Questions at No. 35, he is not 442 reached because the Scots occupy such an inordinate length of time with their Questions. Will you now take steps to protect the Sassenach majority and, by arrangement with the Leader of the House, see to it that the Minister for the bureaucracy is moved so that he answers Questions beginning at No. 20, so that at least once every six months hon. Members may reach him?
§ Mr. John D. GrantFurther to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of hon. Members on this side of the House who would like to see the Minister for the Civil Service given an opportunity to refute some of the tedious and ill-informed guttersniping which is heard from hon. Members opposite at the expense of civil servants.
§ Mr. LawsonFurther to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. Will you also keep in mind that the Secretary of State for Scotland answers for the equivalent of about seven Ministries south of the Border? Will you ensure that there is no encroachment upon Scottish time by any hon. Member who describes himself as a Sassenach but is, some of us suspect, more like a Spaniard?
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. This is not a matter for the Chair. There is a serious problem here. However much I try to hurry matters along, it is difficult to get through more than 35 Questions a day. I try to restrain the length of both Questions and Answers, but I think that self-restraint is much the best. May I make one constructive suggestion? It is that the hon. Member for West Lothian (Mr. Dalyell) might give classes to hon. Members as to how to frame a supplementary question; he is always commendably brief. But the point raised by the hon. Member for Worcestershire, South (Sir G. Nabarro) is not a matter for me.