Select Committee on Procedure Minutes of Evidence


Letter from the Rt Hon Lord Weatherill DL to the Chairman of the Committee

  I entirely agree with the comments in your letter[1] that last month's procedure did indeed bring the House into disrespect and that being so it is absolutely essential for your Committee to recommend a new procedure which will take into account the fact that these days it seems that the Speakership is more or less up for grabs—in my day, if you wanted the job you certainly would not get it!

  So the answer to Question 1 is Yes, to Question 2, I would favour a secret ballot and made as simple as possible on a first past the post basis. Question 3, I think that Tony Benn's suggestion that there should be some form of preliminary meetings with the various candidates is certainly worthy of consideration.


1   See Minutes of Evidence, page 1. Back


 
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