§ 6. Mr. Clemitsonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the continued use of birching as a punishment in the Isle of Man.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesPending the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights, in a current case, this remains a domestic matter for consideration by the Isle of Man Government.
§ Mr. ClemitsonIf the Isle of Man Government will not take action on this practice, will my right hon. Friend initiate action in the House?
§ Mr. ReesIt would be better to wait and see what happens. The matter will eventually come back to me to consider. I feel strongly about corporal punishment, but wider issues are involved.
§ Mr. PowellIs not the effect of the United Kingdom's adherence to the European Convention on Human Rights to alter the constitutional relationship between the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man in respect of the internal affairs of the Isle of Man?
§ Mr. ReesI do not think, with respect to the right hon. Gentleman, that this case alters our relationship. At the end of the day that relationship is a convention between ourselves and the Isle of Man. Our relationship is governed, if that is the right word, by convention. What we decide at the end of the day is our own business.
§ Mr. Norman AtkinsonWill my right hon. Friend say whether he personally is opposed to this barbaric business or agrees with it?
§ Mr. MartenDoes the Secretary of State agree that the people of the Isle of Man know best how to deal with this problem and that they have been very 672 successful in maintaining law and order there? Should we not, therefore, leave the decision to them?
§ Mr. ReesI do not want to be drawn. I just make the obvious remark that one could take a small area of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of a size comparable to that of the Isle of Man and find that the amount of crime in that area in which there is no corporal punishment is less than that in the Isle of Man. This subject is much better left until the Court reports.