§ Q2. Dr. Edmund Marshallasked the Prime Minister when he next plans to make a ministerial broadcast.
§ The Prime MinisterI would refer my hon. Friend to the reply which I gave on 19th March to my hon. Friend the 271 Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner).—[Vol. 870, c. 75.]
§ Dr. MarshallWhen my right hon. Friend next appears on television, will he bear in mind that some of the retirement pensioners watching him get their television licences for 5p while the others have to pay the full licence fee? Will he therefore consult my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for the Home Department and for Social Services with a view to removing this unjust discrimination?
§ The Prime MinisterThis was a question which greatly engaged the House in the last Parliament and got very far in a Bill in Committee upstairs. It will certainly be a matter which will engage the attention of right hon. and hon. Members in all parts of the House in this Parliament.
§ Mrs. Winifred EwingI am disappointed to hear that the Prime Minister will not be making a broadcast soon and I thank him profusely for the five minutes he awarded my party in 1964. [HON. MEMBERS: "Too long."] I express our disappointment at the failure of the Conservative administration to grant us more time in later circumstances. When can the Scottish National Party expect to make any kind of broadcast, ministerial or otherwise?
§ The Prime MinisterI was not responsible in any way for the granting of five minutes in 1964. The answer to the last part of the question is if and when its members ever become Ministers.
Mr. AdleyIf the Prime Minister makes a broadcast, will he explain to the nation how it helps the needy to subsidise the cost of Harry Hyams' bread?
§ The Prime MinisterI do not think that arises out of the Question. The hon. Member may find the answer in his little red book.
§ Mr. WhiteheadIf I may turn my right hon. Friend's mind from one form of Conservative Kung-Fu to another, may I ask, if he is undertaking a review with the broadcasting authorities of party political broadcasts and ministerial statements, whether he will examine, for example, the party political broadcast by 272 the right hon. Member for Altrincham and Sale (Mr. Barber) during the election campaign in terms of standards and objectivity which should be followed out in British politics?
§ The Prime MinisterThere is no ministerial responsibility for the broadcast by the right hon. Member for Altrincham and Sale (Mr. Barber). The arrangements for party political broadcasts, whether during a General Election or in intervening periods, are regulated by a committee of the parties and the broadcasting authorities.