Brendan Ryan (Labour)

On the issue of the vast number of matters on the Adjournment, it is time we reopened the debate on whether Members of the House should be able to table parliamentary questions which Ministers could answer in writing. It is a much more efficient procedure than that which forces many of my colleagues to wait perhaps for weeks before they can raise a matter on the Adjournment. That is a matter for another day.

On the role of the United States, the old phrase, the latter half of which I will leave unsaid, is probably true: "When the United States is good, it is very, very good ... " I remember the conflicts in Chile, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and many other places——