§
Ordered,
That, at this day's sitting, the Court of Session Bill [Lords] may be proceeded with, though opposed, until any hour.—[Mr. Lightbown.]
§ Mr. Dennis Skinner (Bolsover)On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Parliamentary history has been made today and I thought that we ought to say a word about it to make sure that it is properly recorded.
You will recall, Mr. Speaker, as a matter of record that for some time the alliance, as it used to be called, was allocated Supply days, because it was the largest minority party after the official Opposition. I noticed on today's Order Paper an interesting feature and perhaps you will confirm it. Because the parties that formed the alliance no longer exist and a new union has been formed, and as Supply days were allocated immediately after the general election in 1987 to the different parties behind me, the allocation of Supply days has had to go to another party. The interesting feature is that the leader of the Official Unionist party, the right hon. Member for Lagan Valley (Mr. Molyneaux), is now in charge of allocating Supply days to the Liberals and the Provos—the right hon. Member for Plymouth, Devenport (Dr. Owen), who has left the Chamber. It will not go amiss on this auspicious occasion to say that in its desire for a merger the alliance has dealt itself a deadly blow and placed itself in the hands of the Ulster Unionists.
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Gentleman is absolutely correct, and if he wants confirmation of that he will find it in Standing Order No. 13(3) which says:
For the purposes of this order `the second largest opposition party' shall be that party, of those not represented in Her Majesty's Government, which has the second largest number of Members elected to the House as members of that party.As I say, the hon. Gentleman is correct.