Speeches by Gale.

“First, I am sure that the hon. Gentleman did not wish to imply that the Foreign Secretary was deliberately misleading the House. [Interruption.] That said—”

“The shadow Secretary of State has placed his view on the record. He will understand that that is not a matter for the Chair any further, but I hope that whatever lessons need to be learned will have been learned, and I am sure that, on both sides of the House, that is correct.”

“I thank the Secretary of State for his point of order and for placing that on the record.”

“I am sure that the whole House, on both sides, will concur with the Minister’s final remarks. I thank him and the Opposition Front Benchers for their attendance.”

“Last but by no means least, I call the ever-patient Jim Shannon.”

“Order. As it is Armed Forces Week, it is entirely appropriate for the Chair to have allowed the Minister to respond to that question, even though it was not strictly in line with the statement. But from now on, given the time that we have available, we have to come back to the statement itself.”

“I call the Liberal Democrat spokesman.”

“Order. As is the custom, the Minister’s statement will be circulated to both sides of the House, but before we proceed, Members will notice that it will not be complete, in the sense that the Minister delivered a preamble prior to going into what will be circulated. That was to try to reflect the fast-moving nature of …”

“Order. I think the Minister has been here long enough to understand that, actually, matters have to be directed through the Chair; he is entirely correct.”

“Order. I reiterate the admonition that Mr Speaker has offered. This is one of the most far-reaching considerations that the House—even those of us who have been here for a very long time—can remember. It is understandable that a lot of Members will wish to take part, from across the House and on both sides of the argum…”

“I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.”

“I call Darren Paffey to move the motion.”

“Order. This is a very important subject. There are some 14 Members at least who wish to contribute to the debate. Allowing eight minutes each for the wind-ups and a couple of minutes for the hon. Gentleman who has just spoken, I think we are looking at a time limit of about five minutes each. I will not set a formal ti…”

“I call the Opposition Front Bencher.”

“Order. A significant number of Members want to take part in the following debate, so we are playing “beat the clock”. I will not introduce a rigid time limit at this stage, but if Members could confine their speeches to no more than six minutes, we should get everybody in, get the Front Benchers in and give adequate ti…”

“Much has been made in the House this afternoon of the fact that the former Director of Public Prosecutions, now the Prime Minister, instigated a prosecution against grooming gangs. That being so, he was clearly better placed than most of us to understand the need for the national inquiry that he initially so rigidly re…”

“The Government have pledged to enhance the record of the previous Conservative Government and uphold animal welfare. Retained European regulations currently prohibit the handling of chickens by their legs, but in their first act of animal welfare, the Government are proposing to pass regulations to permit that harmful …”

“Mr Speaker, The Times has told the world how old you are today.”

“As you know, Mr Speaker, I have tried for two days to raise this issue through an urgent question. When the Minister came to the Dispatch Box, I expected to hear something constructive; what we have actually heard about is the sanctioning of two people. The United Kingdom Government could unilaterally recognise Palesti…”

“I do not propose to write it into the record, but I note that you are catching up on me. [Laughter.] Happy birthday.”