LICENSING BILL (Hansard, 14 July 1949)

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR
My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a Third time.

§ LORD ROCHESTER
My Lords, I feel rather like the bridegroom who, with his best man, was waiting very nervously for his bride, who was late. He got very agitated and he kept his head down. The best man said to him: "Have you lost anything; have you lost the ring?" But whatever the best man said he could not reassure the bridegroom. Finally, the best man demanded: "What have you lost, man?" And the bridegroom replied: "I've lost my enthusiasm." I, too, am in 1372 that predicament to-night; I have lost a good deal of my enthusiasm for this Bill and yet I feel that there is enough good left in it to justify it being given a Third Reading. I deplore the fixing of the latest permitted hour for the sale of liquor at 10.30 p.m. instead of 10 p.m., and still more do I regret the provision for intoxicants to be sold and consumed in certain clubs in London until 2.30 a.m. I believe it to be a libel on our tourist visitors from overseas to suggest that they require any such extension.
However, the provisions in the Bill eliminating private profit by disinterested management, thereby removing any incentive to encourage drinking, is clear social gain and in the best interests of the community. Especially am I grateful for the Bill's total exclusion of young people under the age of eighteen from employment in liquor bars throughout the country. I hope, above almost all else, that clubs may yet find a place in the Bill before it receives the Royal Assent. I therefore support the Third Reading of the Bill, albeit with rather less enthusiasm than I anticipated when it was first introduced.

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR
My Lords, I am going to move two Amendments. We anticipate, with good reason, that one of the Bills which will receive the Royal Assent when the Royal Commission sits in a few minutes time is the Lands Tribunal Bill. That being so, I propose that there should be inserted into this Bill these references to the Lands Tribunal assuming—as we all confidently do—that what happens in ten minutes time will give the Royal Assent to the Lands Tribunal Bill. We shall then have this Bill in Order. I beg to move the Amendment to Clause 5 which stands on the Order Paper in my name.

§ LORD LLEWELLIN
My Lords, I rather wondered why we did not put this in during the Report stage. The explanation which has just been given by the noble and learned Viscount who sits on the Woolsack justifies us, I think, in making this new Amendment on the Third Reading.

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR
My Lords, the position with regard to Scotland is rather different. There will have to be an interregnum in Scotland in respect of Lands Tribunal work. It is for that reason that I am moving the second Amendment which your Lord ships will find on the Order Paper. I beg to move.