§ Mr. MaclennanOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 9, for the purpose of discussing a specific, urgent and important matter which I think should have the attention of the House, namely,
the refusal of the Prime Minister to accept his Government's responsibility for the present appalling and unacceptable level of unemployment.That it is specific has been revealed by the Prime Minister's reply to my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition this afternoon in which he specifically claimed that the unemployment figures were the responsibility of the previous Government.That it is important is undeniable and is revealed by the figures themselves.
That it is urgent stems from the fact that this House is about to go into Recess and that, although the Government have repeatedly denied responsibility for the unemployment figures, none the less when we have debated unemployment on a number of occasions they have brought forward some modest measures to ameliorate the situation under pressure from this side of the House. Although these do not amount to an economic strategy, they are placebos which are of some benefit.
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Member for Caithness and Sutherland (Mr. Maclennan) asks leave to move the Adjournment of the House under Standing Order No. 9 for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter which he thinks 860 should have urgent consideration: namely,
the refusal of the Prime Minister to accept his Government's responsibility for the present appalling and unacceptable level of unemployment.As the hon. Member well knows, I had very little notice of his application, but in the time that I have been given to consider it, although without doubt the whole issue of unemployment is a very important and serious one, I have to decide whether it is a matter properly to be debated under Standing Order No. 9. I am afraid that I cannot accede to the hon. Gentleman's application.