The Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which allowed members of the public and press to attend meetings of certain public bodies. The Act is notable for having been initiated as a private member's bill drawn up by Margaret Thatcher, and also for being introduced in a maiden speech, a unique feat for successful legislation. On 5 February 1960, Thatcher's speech was delivered without notes, and was lauded as the best maiden speech amongst the 1959 new intake.
The Act was introduced primarily to prevent circumvention of rules prohibiting councils from excluding the press by calling a Committee of the Whole, a tactic that had been used by Labour-controlled councils during an industrial dispute in the printing industry in 1958. A similar bill had been introduced a number of years earlier by Lionel Heald, who helped guide Thatcher through the legislative process.
Famous quotes containing the words public, bodies and/or act:
“I did not find Liverpool ugly. Her stately public buildings, broad streets, public squares, and noble statues redeem her from the charge.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore.”
—Apocrypha. Ecclesiasticus, 44:14.
The line “their name liveth for evermore” was chosen by Rudyard Kipling on behalf of the Imperial War Graves Commission as an epitaph to be used in Commonwealth War Cemeteries. Kipling had himself lost a son in the fighting.
“It is only in the act of nursing that a woman realizes her motherhood in visible and tangible fashion; it is a joy of every moment.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)