Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

HC S: [Election of Speaker]

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: House of Commons
Source: Hansard HC [118/7-8]
Editorial comments: 1510-c.1516.
Importance ranking: Major
Word count: 752
[column 7]

3.10 pm

The Prime Minister (Mrs. Margaret Thatcher)

Bernard WeatherillMr. Speaker-Elect, it is a great pleasure and an honour for me, on this day of unanimity, to be the first to offer you congratulations on behalf of my right hon. and hon. Friends on your election as Speaker. This House is the democratic authority of the country and the Speaker is its foremost upholder. Just as the general election secures the democratic right of the people to choose their representatives, so, Mr. Speaker-Elect, we choose you to ensure that freedom and order should reign in our House.

This time, Sir, you come to the Chair with the great experience of your previous tenure of office and we know from the qualities you have already shown that you will preside over our discussions with firmness, with fairness and with kindness.

It is of course difficult to find a fresh way of expressing our good wishes and congratulating you when following such eloquent and powerful contributions as those of the proposer and seconder which have already been made today. But St. Paul himself identified—albeit in a rather different context—the qualities that matter. The leader, he said, should be

“blameless, … vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, … not covetous; one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity” .

Mr. Speaker-Elect, it is not possible to set out a blueprint or a job description for the onerous task that one of my predecessors so accurately described as the “linchpin of the chariot” .

Each of our great Speakers of the past has brought his own special skills and spirit to the task, which cannot simply be copied by his successors. Perhaps one of the most telling tributes was paid when it was said of one of your predecessors many years ago:

“He had always something to say that was agreeable to everybody, and used to take as much pleasure in telling a story to a man's advantage as others generally do the contrary.”

Mr. Speaker-Elect, we already know that when, in the heat of debate, the tempers of others may shorten, yours will not, that when, in the excitement of a forcefully contested issue, others may seek to draw you into taking sides, you will remain resolutely impartial. We know that, when the noise of lively debate threatens to drown speakers on both sides, your call for order will carry authority, and your sense of humour will defuse wrath. We know these qualities are yours, and we know that the House has need of them; for like all its predecessors, this Parliament will generate heat as well as light and ours would be a limp and lifeless democracy if it did not.

It is sometimes said that the House has become more difficult and noisy than in the past. It is also averred that by comparison with the behaviour of some of our predecessors in past centuries, we are a model of conduct and calm. I suspect the truth is that, since the House elected Sir Thomas Hungerford its first Speaker 600 years [column 8]ago, and with each of the many Speakers who have followed, it has aspired to better courtesies than it has achieved. But there is today one important difference, to which you have already referred, Mr. Speaker-Elect. In the past, the number of people who heard directly the work of the House was necessarily limited. But now many of our liveliest moments go straight into millions of homes. We therefore have a heightened responsibility to assist you, Sir, in seeing that we live up to the best traditions of debate and democracy.

Mr. Speaker-Elect, the special place that this House occupies in the life of our nation, and in the wider world, means that your work as our representative at home and abroad is a very important part of your duties. I know that the whole House will join me in thanking you for the magnificent work that you have done representing this House overseas, and also for hosting the Commonwealth parliamentary conference here in London. We also thank you for the endless kindness and hospitality that you and Mrs. Speaker have shown not only to right hon. and hon. Members but to many others as well.

We admire the tireless work that you have undertaken on your appeal, where the result of your efforts can now be seen as the work takes place to restore St. Margaret's to its former beauty.

At the beginning of this new Parliament we welcome you, Mr. Speaker-Elect, to your Chair. We pay tribute to you for the work that you have done already on our behalf, and we wish you well in the task ahead.