§ 16 Leave out Clause 25.
§ The Commons disagreed to this Amendment and proposed the following Amendments to the words so restored to the Bill:
§ 17 Page 17, line 39, leave out from "section" to "he" in line 42, and insert—
- '(a) a person is a member of an association if he belongs to it by virtue of his admission to any sort of membership provided for by its constitution (and is not merely a person with certain rights under its constitution by virtue of his membership of some other association), and references to membership of an association shall be construed accordingly;
- (b) a person is an associate of an association to which this section applies if not being a member of it,'.
§ Lord HARRIS of GREENWICHLords, I beg to move that this House doth not insist on their Amendment No. 16 to which the Commons have disagreed for the Reason numbered 17.
With the leave of the House I will discuss Amendment No. 18 with Reason numbered 19, Amendment No. 20 with Reason numbered 21, and Amendments Nos. 33, 34 and 35 with Reason numbered 36. We come again to the club clauses of the Bill. I am not sure that there are any new arguments on either side of the issue, and therefore I do not propose to rehearse in any detail arguments which have been advanced in earlier debates on the Bill in another place, in this House, and then again in another place.
Briefly, the purpose of Clause 25 is to change the criterion on which the question of whether or not a club or association is within the scope of legislation is deter mined. As it stands, following the decision of your Lordships' House sitting in a judicial capacity, the test is whether there is a genuine selection procedure. The Government reached the conclusion that, for reasons we set out in the White Paper, this test was unacceptable as a matter of policy. Our problem then was to devise a more acceptable one. The solution embodied in Clause 25 is that the legislation should apply to all clubs except those with fewer than 25 members.
§ Moved, That the House doth not insist on the said Amendment to which the Commons have disagreed for the Reason numbered 17.—(Lord Harris of Greenwich.)
1085§ Lord HAILSHAM of SAINT MARYLEBONELords, the only effect of the attitude of the Government, of course, will be that this clause will apply to working men's clubs where it will be greatly resented, and not to Pall Mall clubs where it will be quite unenforceable. If they like to introduce this discriminatory class of legislation, we should not press the matter any further.
§ Lord MONSONMy Lords, it is a great shame that the Commons rejected your Lordships' Amendment. Their insistence on the retention of Clause 25 is a blow for the concept of freedom of association because, of course, freedom to associate necessarily implies freedom not to associate. I agree, however, that it is perhaps not an Amendment on which we ought to fight.
§ 7.38 p.m.