§ Mr. CrouchOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. It will not have escaped your eye that out of 49 questions to the Prime Minister this afternoon, 43 hon. Members wanted to know the Prime Minister's engagements today. Do you not agree, Mr. Speaker, that that is making a joke of the way in which we use the Prime Minister's time here? Would it not be possible for hon. Members to be required to use their ingenuity in order to ask the Prime Minister questions without this needless repetition? This afternoon other questions could have taken precedence over the repetition—namely, the questions on whether the Prime Minister was to visit Rawnsley, or the West Midlands, her attitude on the progress of the Queen's Speech, her attitude on cruelty to children, and when she next intended to meet the TUC. Should not those questions, where Members have exercised some ingenuity, take precedence over repetition?
§ Mr. SpeakerI have a great deal of sympathy with what the hon. Gentleman says, because substantive questions used to be put to the Prime Minister. However, the matter is in the hands of the House. I must call the questions in the order in which they are tabled. However, with a little ingenuity we should be able to return to the Question Time to which the House was previously accustomed.
§ Mr. WinnickOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. My point of order relates not to matters that arose during Question Time but to the way in which questions are called. I am not concerned about how the questions are worded, but I am concerned that the number of questions that can be answered in 15 minutes are few. The chances of an hon. Member's question being called within the first three or four are remote. I hope that I shall not be misunderstood by raising the matter, but it would be useful if you, Mr. Speaker, could give some indication of the way in which you call hon. Members during Prime Minister's Question Time.
§ Mr. SpeakerThe House may like to know that I try to keep a register of the number of times that hon. Members have been called. This afternoon, two hon. Members who have never been called at Prime Minister's Question Time were called, and three hon. Members who had been called once before were called. The hon. Gentleman has been called five times.
§ Mr. FarrOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Will you inform the House whether you have received a request from the hon. Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr (Mr. Rooker) to make a statement or a personal retraction of the allegations that he made last week, which have since proved to be largely unfounded?
§ Mr. SpeakerI have received no request.