§ Mr. BuchanOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I thank you for allowing me to put this point of order at the moment, because I recognise the pressures of time that we have. I should have been tempted to raise this matter in another way had it not been for the discussion that has just taken place and its evidence of strong support by the Conservative Party for the workers in the public service.
I wish to draw attention to the behaviour of hon. Members opposite last Friday and to what happened to a number of Private Members' Bills. In the case of the Bill affecting public service workers, the Post Office Workers (Industrial Action) Bill, I remind you that the Bill had received a Second Reading on the Floor of the House by a majority of 20 to 1. Hon. Members opposite had said that they were in favour of the principle of the Bill. In Committee, amendments were withdrawn, presumably because hon. Members accepted the assurances that had been given in relation to them.
However, the events last Friday prevented the Bill from going through its final stages in this House, so that the Post Office workers still remain the only workers, apart from the police, who are deprived of the right to take industrial action.
I want to draw your attention to how it happened. I hesitate to use the word "filibuster", and it would be wrong of me to do so, because it is unparliamentary, but I refrain from using it for no other reason. At any rate, we were in the position where the promoter of an earlier Bill agreed to accept completely all the amendments proposed, yet hon. Members opposite continued to discuss those amendments. It may not have been a filibuster, but it was an attempt to prevent a highly important Bill, affecting a section of the workers, from being reached.
What protection can be given to Private Members when they are faced with this shameful, disgraceful and reactionary treatment? Is it not a question that you might wish to refer to the Select Committee on Procedure? Above all, does such behaviour not make a nonsense of the protestations of the Tory Party in their attempt to woo the trade unions at present?
§ Mr. SpeakerI am sorry for the hon. Member for Renfrewshire, West (Mr. Buchan) as I am for other hon. Members whose Bills failed to get through. Friday was the last day for Private Members' time, but as the hon. Gentleman knows we never recognise anyone as filibustering in this House. I can only say to him that there is no known remedy open to those whose Bills are low down on the list on the last day for Private Members' Bills. If a Bill is high up on the list and the House has the will to carry it, the chances are brighter but, as we have learned many times, one hon. Member is enough to prevent a Bill from getting through. There is nothing that I can do about it.
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