A jam...
The
process
-
12
does not
end there. The debate in
Council will be informed, lively, and constructive. and It
will be attended by the Senior officials concerned who will
often be very
answer
Members'
searching indeed.
which questions,
will
the path set by
It should not be assumed that the Council will
follow blindly down
by the Administration.
From time to time a proposal will be rejected out of hand,
sent back for further consideration ΟΙ
more
refinement
often it is
the Council or
to
Nor qualifications.
will advise that it should be
should it be
approved subject
assumed that the Council will always speak with one voice.
On
occasion opinion will
be divided and
a vote
will
be
necessary.
Given that the
important decisions are
invariably
different
a matter of distinguishing between
shades of grey, rather than between black and white, there is nothing particularly surprising about this. [But
once a
· decision is taken, Members of the Council will be expected
1
to
support it, according
to the doctrine
of collective
responsibility.
In coming to its conclusion the Council is acutely
aware not
so much of the theroretical extent of the power
conferred on the Governor in Council by the Letters Patent and the Royal Instruction, but of the practical limitation
convention and the realities that power imposed by convention
modern Hong Kong. Thus there can be no question of taking
decisions which cannot be explained to the people of Hong
on
of