§ 13. Mr. SkinnerTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a further statement regarding the political situation in Northern Ireland.
§ Mr. BrookeI refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave earlier today to my hon. Friend the Member for Dover (Mr. Shaw).
§ Mr. SkinnerDoes the Minister agree that in the course of the past five or six Parliaments, there has been at least one initiative by Labour and by Conservatives when they have been in government? All of them have failed yet, surprisingly, throughout the whole of those 20-odd years, nearly every single opinion poll and survey has shown that the British people want to see the troops out of Northern Ireland—[Interruption.] Why is it that among all those political initiatives—most of which have failed—troops out has never been on the agenda?
§ Mr. BrookeIn answering the hon. Gentleman, I referred him to my answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Dover. I now refer him to my answer a moment or two ago to my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Mr. Budgen). On his point about troops out, the response that he got from the House on this occasion is the answer that he deserves.