§ 11. Mr. Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to review the possibility of restoring to the courts the option of capital and corporal punishment. [1363]
§ Mr. HowardNone. Capital punishment is a matter for the will of the House. I am not satisfied that corporal punishment would be useful in practice. It had virtually fallen into disuse some time before it was abolished.
§ Mr. WintertonI am sure that my right hon. and learned Friend would not expect me to be happy with that reply. Does he accept that, as I believe, a decent and civilised society should be permitted to protect itself against an uncivilised, heinous and brutal act? I refer to the killing of women following rape, the killing of children following sexual molestation, the killing of police and prison officers in the course of their duty, killings resulting from terrorist bombs and bullets and killings resulting from premeditated armed robbery.
Is it not right that a civilised society should be able to protect itself from those brutal crimes, and is not the only answer capital punishment? Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree with me, speaking as a grandfather and father, that the phrase, "spare the rod and spoil the child" is more applicable today than it ever has been?
§ Mr. HowardI tend to agree with my hon. Friend's last observation, and of course I agree with him that any civilised society must protect itself against barbaric behaviour of the type that he described. Where we differ is that I believe that there are other ways in which that protection can be provided, including the sentence of life imprisonment, but it is important that someone 1325 accountable to the House continues to have a role in deciding how long someone sentenced to life imprisonment should actually serve, including the minimum sentence for those who are convicted of the murder of police officers.
§ Mr. SoleyIf the Home Secretary decided to support capital punishment, would he give an absolute guarantee to the House that he would first develop the scientific skills that were necessary to restore life to a person who had been wrongfully convicted?
§ Mr. HowardIt is true that the danger of miscarriages of justice and the impossibility of remedying them is one of the strongest arguments against capital punishment.
§ Mr. HawkinsDoes my right hon. and learned Friend agree that it is highly likely that, if there were a referendum on the re-introduction of capital and corporal punishment, voters would vote for it, as my hon. Friend the Member for Macclesfield (Mr. Winterton) has said?
Does my right hon. and learned Friend also agree that the Leader of the Opposition might consider corporal punishment for his Front-Bench spokesman on inner cities for his appalling racist comments reported on "Dispatches" on Channel 4 last night?
§ Mr. HowardWe condemn and deplore racist comments, whenever they are made, wherever they are made and whatever quarter they come from. I hope that the Opposition will take seriously the observations that were made in the House this afternoon and take appropriate action.
It is my impression that the Leader of the Opposition administers corporal punishment to members of his Front-Bench team almost daily.