HL Deb 09 May 1968 vol 291 cc1557-60

2.43 p.m.

LORD BROCKWAY

My Lords, I beg leave to present the Petition from the inhabitants of Bermuda, of which I have given Notice on the Order Paper. I appreciate that this is a very rare occurrence. I want to suit the convenience of the House and its business to-day and also to act in the spirit of courtesy which is so very characteristic of this House. I have been careful to look up Erskine May on this matter and I find on page 853 that on May 30, 1685, the Lords ordered that any Lord who presents a Petition "shall open it before it be read", which is rather amusing. But Erskine May goes on to say: At the time of presentation the Lord may comment upon the Petition and upon the general matters to which it refers, and debate thereon may ensue. It is on that latter matter that I would seek to meet the convenience of the House at a later point. At this moment I do not propose to read the Petition, which is of some length, but only to summarise it.

The Petition comes in the names of the Leader of the Opposition in the Bermuda Legislature, the Chairman of the Progressive Labour Party, which is the Opposition Party, and a member of the Legislature who is a candidate in the forthcoming election. The Petition indicates—and this is the essential point—the desire that the election be conducted in circumstances which are fair, and submits that in present circumstances that is impossible. It reminds your Lordships that there were riots in April and a State of Emergency declared, and the complaint is mentioned that the Governor did not summon the Legislature within five days of the Proclamation of the Emergency, as provided for in the Constitution. The Petition points out that writs for a new election on May 22 were issued despite the State of Emergency, which prevented television, public meetings and canvassing as long as that State of Emergency lasted.

The Petition points out that the Opposition Party were already prejudiced by unfair constituency boundaries, the method of registration of electors, and failure so far to appoint a Committee of Inquiry into the riots. I read the Prayer with which the Petition ends: Wherefor your Petitioners pray that your right honourable House will take into deliberation the conditions under which it is proposed to hold elections in Bermuda and in particular that your right honourable House will submit an humble Address to Her Majesty praying that an Order in Council be made under the Bermuda Constitution 1967 cancelling writs already issued for the election and ordering that. new writs be issued therefor on any convenient date immediately following the eighth day of May instant when the said State of Emergency was ended. And your Petitioners further pray that your right honourable House will take any further or other steps as to them seem appropriate in this respect. The Petition concludes as required: And your Petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray"— and then follow the signatures of those I have mentioned.

I am very anxious to meet the convenience of the House and to act in the spirit of association which is characteristic of this House. If my noble friend the Leader of the House could suggest some other method than having an immediate debate now, so long as it was an urgent debate I would be prepared to put off that right which Erskine May gives to me of initiating a debate now. I am in his hands; but I think it probable that if I were to speak in a debate I should have to give a Motion, and my Motion would therefore be that the Petition which I have summarised should be printed and should be in the hands of the Members of the House.

THE PAYMASTER GENERAL (LORD SHACKLETON)

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for the consideration he has given to the convenience of the House. I will not go over the previous precedents. On the last occasion of this sort, when my noble friend Lord Stonham introduced a Petition, no further action was taken on it at that time; but we appreciate that in principle the Petition could be of an urgent nature.

I would make one point straight away. It is not in my hands; nor is it necessarily determined by Erskine May what your Lordships should do. Your Lordships are always in control of your own actions and the procedure in this House. But my noble friend is quite correct in his quotations from Erskine May, and, judging by such guidance as we have, it is appropriate that we should take that fully into account and, so far as possible, not change an established practice. The question as to how far there is an established practice in contemporary circumstances is rather arguable. I do not therefore wish to make any comments on the substance of the Petition which my noble friend has presented to your Lordships' House, although I do not doubt that there will be noble Lords who wish to do so. In particular, I should expect that my noble friend Lord Shepherd, on behalf of the Government and the Commonwealth Office, might wish to meet or refute certain of the arguments.

The purpose of my rising, for the reason which I will give in a moment, is to suggest that the debate on the Petition be adjourned until the conclusion of Public Business this evening. We are unorthodox in your Lordships' House. It is possible, I understand, for a debate to take place without there being a Motion before the House at all, but we shall see what happens this evening. It is quite clear that a debate could ensue on the comments that Lord Brockway may wish to make later. But we have a great deal of business to get through. Noble Lords opposite have been good enough to co-operate with the Government and to meet the convenience of the House in taking the Bills that we are hoping to take as soon as we have disposed of this point.

Although a copy of the Petition has been made available to certain noble Lords, I think that your Lordships will hardly have had time to digest what my noble friend has said, and certainly your Lordships have had no opportunity to look at the Petition itself. If your Lord- ships accept my Motion that the debate be adjourned, we will take steps to see that further copies of the Petition are available. At least we have more modern methods of reproduction of Petitions than existed in whatever year it was in the 1600's, when photocopying equipment was not so readily available. The House will thus have an opportunity of considering the Petition.

In conclusion, I should like to say that, since this matter has arisen, it may be that the whole question of the presentation of Petitions and the timing of debates could profitably be referred to the Procedure Committee. In another place they have an established procedure for dealing with these matters. In your Lordships' House we seek, if possible, to avoid confining ourselves within rules; but there are times when one is confronted with a situation in regard to which at least we should consider whether there is some more convenient way of dealing with it.

Whether or not my noble friend wishes his Petition to be printed will, of course, depend rather on what occurs tonight. It may even be possible for it to be first read in Hansard. But I think it is for the convenience of the House, if it is so inclined, to accept my Motion; and I therefore move that the debate on the Petition presented by Lord Brockway be adjourned until the conclusion of Public Business. I beg to move.

Moved accordingly, and, on Question, Motion agreed to.