§ 12. Mr. Eadieasked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many letters he has sent to individual representatives of local authorities arising out of decisions of these authorities to provide school milk for children over seven years of age; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Gordon CampbellForty-one such letters have been sent on my behalf in pursuance of the procedure laid down by Statute. I have no statement to make on this today.
§ Mr. EadieAs the right hon. Gentleman must know that in recent times the House has been obsessed with hon. Members who have been faced with issues of conscience and principles, does he think it right that his Department should send treatening letters to decent, God-fearing councillors of Midlothian and elsewhere because they, as a matter of conscience and of principle, are not prepared to deprive school kiddies over seven of school milk?
§ Mr. CampbellThe position is governed by Statute. [Interruption.] It is governed by other Statutes. These people were affected by the auditors' reports. Therefore, I was statutorily bound to intimate the reports to them and to consider any statements in writing they cared to make to me within 14 days of those intimations. This is in accordance with Statutes preceding the Education (Milk) Act.
§ Mr. EwingWill the Secretary of State comment on a statement which was made in my constituency by an official spokesman of the party which now forms the Government but which is the minority party in Scotland? In answer to a question about school milk this spokesman said that only the rich should have children and that if a person could not afford to keep his children he should not have any. Will the Secretary of State accept from me that that statement caused widespread concern in the area in which it was made?
§ Mr. CampbellI am not aware of the statement. It sounds as though it may have been concerned more with the population explosion than with this subject.
Mr. Edward TaylorHas my right hon. Friend any recollection of what views were expressed by the God-fearing councillors of Midlothian and other local authorities when the previous Government removed free milk from the 12-year olds?
§ Mr. CampbellI think my hon. Friend will remember that when our party was 990 on the other side of the House we behaved very much more responsibly.
§ Mr. BuchanI should like to take up this question of responsibility. In the letter that the right hon. Gentleman sent to these councils, did he remind them that he was the man who aided, encouraged and abetted the Tory town councils of Glasgow and Edinburgh to flout the will of Parliament in the matter of fee-paying schools?
§ Mr. CampbellI am very glad of this opportunity to repudiate entirely 100 per cent. that charge which the hon. Gentleman has already made outside this House. Neither I nor any of my colleagues did anything to encourage any local authority in 1969 and 1970 to flout the law. We did the opposite. We said that we would change that law when we came back into office, and we did so.