In the Bretonian Parliament

[pbrione]

The session being during the summer recess the deputy Lord Speaker filled the chair and was somewhat taken aback by this sudden and unexpected outburst on the part of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

"Order! Order!" he cried, looking around for some suitable figure wishing to speak who was unlikely to further enflame the debate "I look to the right honourable Lord Canning..."

Canning spoke, trying to restore some element of calm to the restless chamber;

"My Lords, let us not get carried away with such accusations. I am sure my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry has acted in good faith regarding his approval of this, might I remind the house, "provisional exploratative" expedition. I have no doubt that there will be full parliamentary consultation before any more permanent settlement, colonisation or resource extraction programmes are approved. I see no harm in allowing BMM scouts to search the planet for minerals and, indeed, their surveys will no doubt prove useful to this house in deciding on the future of Planet Sprague at a later date. However, I concur with my right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer that given BMMs past history, granting them free license to develop the planet may prove short-sighted."

"In this instance, however, I would like to remind the house that the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry has acted fully within his authority, given that Sprague falls under the Kingdom of the Near Omegas rather than the Kingdom of Bretonia and, as such, may be governed by appropriate secondary legislation emanating from the Cabinet through exercise of Royal Perogatives. I would also like to remind my right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer that any accusations of malpractice against government ministers are most serious indeed and should either be retracted at once or refered to the Parliamentary Committee on Standards in Public Life for investigation."

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Sir Stanley Nelson




<span style="color:#000066">Charles Canning </span><span style="color:#000066"> Foreign Secretary</span>