§ Mr. Wallasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the proposals he put to Mr. Smith on his recent visit to Salisbury relating to the referenda to be held before the entrenched clauses could be amended included a provision that a two-thirds majority of all registered voters was required irrespective as to whether or not they chose to exercise their vote.
§ Mr. George ThomsonI have been asked to reply.
I described the principle governing this alternative proposal in my statement on the 18th November. In my talks with Mr. Smith in Salisbury I made it clear that we were ready to discuss the details of the proposal with a view to modifying them, if discussion showed that this was right. But Mr. Smith totally rejected the principle on which the proposal was based.
In general I would consider it right that if referenda are held on amendments to these vitally important entrenched provisions of the Constitution, those amendments should require the positive support of a majority of the electorate.