§ 2.43 p.m.
§ LORD REITHMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, in the list of members of public Boards of a commercial character (Cmnd. 1903), they will consider in future distinguishing, by use of an asterisk or otherwise, those members who have previously served as civil servants, or as members of the Foreign Service, or as Regular officers in the Armed Forces.]
§ LORD REITHMy Lords, may I ask the Leader of the House whether that is a right Answer to give? I think it is inadequate, unhelpful and extremely rude.
§ THE EARL OF DUNDEEMy Lords, I will put it another way. The answer is in the negative.
§ LORD REITHI have two words: petitio principii.
§ LORD ROBERTSON OF OAKRIDGEMy Lords, might I ask the Minister whether he would think it proper that, in the event of Her Majesty's Government deciding to answer this Question in the affirmative, they would consider it right to apply a similar stigma to firms acting under private enterprise, many hundreds of which have directors and chairmen drawn from the prescribed classes.
§ THE EARL OF DUNDEEMy Lords, it might also be right to disclose any discreditable antecedents which we might discover about the other members of the public Boards.
§ EARL ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHMy Lords, would it not be reasonable to give information to Members of both Houses of Parliament with regard to the records of people of the actual service which suits them for the particular job? This is a matter of courtesy to the House. Surely we should not have had such an Answer as we have had to-day.
§ THE EARL OF DUNDEEI do not agree at all, my Lords. Anybody who wants to know anything about the past history of any member in the published list of these public Boards can easily look it up in a standard book of reference. There is no good reason either to distinguish or to stigmatise any class of members of these Boards, whether they are civil servants, ex-Army officers, or anybody else with an asterisk. It seems to me a new variation of the doctrine of apartheid.
§ LORD REITHMy Lords, it is quite clear that the Government think there is something here to hide.
§ THE EARL OF DUNDEEMy Lords, you are not going to reveal it so plainly with nothing more than an asterisk, and I would suggest that if you are going to reveal what may be considered discreditable about one member, you should do it about all of them.