§ Mr. Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow)On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Will you draw to the attention of Madam Speaker for reflection a question of what I might call Friday behaviour in the House'? I do not doubt that the hon. Members for Romsey and Waterside (Mr. Colvin), for Bromsgrove (Mr. Thomason) and for Canterbury (Mr. Brazier) had pressing and important engagements in their constituencies or elsewhere. However, we all have important engagements and we have to make a choice.
If they have, we have, I have or any other hon. Member has important engagements, we had better decide not to speak in Friday debates. It used to be the case that whenever an hon. Member spoke, unless there were quite exceptional circumstances, at least he or she waited for the winding-up speeches.
Frankly, my hon. Friend the Member for Dundee, West (Mr. Ross) and I spoke for a long time. However, I would certainly not have done so had I not known that my hon. Friend the Member for Rother Valley (Mr. Barron), whose motion is the second on the Order Paper, had had it made quite clear to him that there was no chance of his motion being reached.
If, as the Minister said, I asked a number of detailed questions, when is there an opportunity, other than in a Friday debate, to ask serious questions against a background of evidence about what a——
§ Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Janet Fookes)Order. The hon. Gentleman is going rather wide of his original point of order. He asked whether I would pass on his views to Madam Speaker, which I readily undertake to do; but the matter cannot be taken further at present.