§ [MR. SPEAKER in the Chair]
§ Mr. DevlinOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. When I entered the Members' Post Office this morning at 9 am, 50 per cent. of its floor space was taken up with cardboard boxes about the size of a large shoe box. Every hon. Member has today been mailed a plastic model of a foetus. Those grotesque models have been opened on behalf of hon. Members by our secretaries and research assistants, most of whom are female and some of whom have recently suffered miscarriages and other problems related to child bearing.
The packages have been a grossly offensive and distasteful demonstration. I hope that you will deprecate it, Mr. Speaker, and also give instructions to the Members' Post Office that, should it happen again, all such disgusting models should be sent back.
§ Mr. CormackFurther to that point of order, Mr. Speaker.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. Let me deal with the matter.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. Please allow me to say something first.
I have received numerous complaints about that matter. I have also received a letter from the Assistant Serjeant at Arms informing me that a large number of parcels were delivered, but they were all stamped, so they had to be taken in. Some of them were accepted by hon. Members and some were not and those will be sent back 2 to the sender. Perhaps it would be appropriate for the Leader of the House, as Chairman of the Services Committee, to look into the matter and consider what action may be necessary in future if this sort of thing happens again.
§ Mr. AltonFurther to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. Surely it is the legitimate right of citizens of this country to lobby their Members of Parliament, and their rights must be upheld as well. In comparison with what actually happens to the unborn child, the medical model——
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. That is a point of order concerned with the merits of the matter, which can be debated later. What I have said is a fact. I have received a great many complaints from hon. Members and from their secretaries.