§ Mr. SpeakerI do not think that it is a point of order, if the hon. and learned Gentleman is seeking to move the Adjournment of the House.
§ Mr. PagetIt is in fact a point of order, Mr. Speaker. You have indicated that you would take applications to move the Adjournment of the House under Standing Order No. 9 in order of priority of giving notice. I urge you not to establish that as a precedent. The whole point of applications under Standing Order No. 9 is to provide an opportunity for the House to discuss an urgent matter as and when it arises.
If it is reduced to a matter of giving notice, hon. Members who have given you notice will find themselves obligated to make the types of speech which we have now heard after Question Time. It will not get us anywhere. We shall then reach the point at which a further application is futile, because from sheer bore- 918 dom the House will be reduced to fewer than 40 Members.
I had hoped, Mr. Speaker, to raise the quite simple point that where the situation as to sugar was altered in the process of negotiations and without consulting the House, the effect within the sugar-producing countries was to produce very large and immediate financial losses. There is now no point in doing that, because the time is lost.
However, I urge you, Mr. Speaker, not to make notice in advance a question of priorities on this Standing Order. It will destroy the effectiveness of the Order if you do. It must be an application made spontaneously when the problem arises, and that is normally at the point where the Minister makes his statement. It is not possible to give notice in advance when that happens.
§ Mr. SpeakerI am grateful to the hon. and learned Member for raising this point of order. I am bound by the Standing Orders of the House. Standing Order No. 9(3) provides:
A Member intending to propose to move the adjournment of the House under the provisions of this order shall give notice to Mr. Speaker by twelve o'clock, if the urgency of the matter is known at that hour. If the urgency is not so known he shall give notice as soon thereafter as is practicable.In the circumstances, I was bound to take first the hon. Gentleman who made the first application and then the hon. Gentleman who made the second application—the hon. Member for Tottenham (Mr. Atkinson). If after the hon. and learned Gentleman first rose and I told him that that was not the moment for him to make his application he had then passed me a note saying that something urgent had arisen, I would have regarded that as prior notice.
§ Mr. AtkinsonOn a point of order. Mr. Speaker. In the course of my application I raised the question of the Government's autonomy in the raising or lowering of tariffs. Can I, through you, seek an answer as to whether the Secretary of State was correct in saying that the Government have an autonomy in this and can do as they wish?
§ Mr. SpeakerThat may be a very good point, but it is not a point for me. The hon. Gentleman must pursue it in the other ways which are open to him.