AT WESTMINSTER .
pARLIAMENT has approached the Whitsuntide recess' floodlit without and riven by discord within. To be exact. one is thinking of the House of Commons, for the House of Lords goes its serene way. At least it is not distracted by electioneering considerations, and it is these which are doing much to bedevil affairs in the Commons. There is no question that is not being judged at the back of members' minds by its bearing on the election that most people are convinced must come this year. That b.) itself helps to create a factious spirit. Now the Bevanite mutiny has diffused its own wretchedness through the Labour ranks, produced great bitterness within the party and heightened hostility to the Conservatives who cannot conceal their glee at Labour's troubles and—what would you ? —decide that they will bring an appreciable electoral dividend.
* * * * This is and will remain a highly combustible situation. The House was brought to the brink of disorder by the violent clamour of the Conservatives for Mr. Shinwell's resignation last week. Before the war such an episode would have been the talk of the country and filled the newspapers, but these explo- sions have become the commonplaces of this Parliament and small beer for the newspapers. There is constant snarling on both sides. Mr. Churchill rarely advances to the table but there is muted scoffing below the Government gangway. A section of the Labour Party shows him nothing but spleen, and in the crudest ways. The scalding of the Government by the Labour opponents of the charges for spectacles and teeth has been equalled by the scalding of the opponents by the orthodox. The way in which the two rent each other in the committee stage of the Bill was amazing. Such an exhibition is incredible to the Conservative mind. No wonder the Opposition watched it fascinated. It is only the parties of the Left. Liberal or Labour, whose members cut each other's throats in public.
The warring broke out again on the third reading of the Bill on Monday.. Mr. McGovern, Mre"Michael Foot and Mr. Cross- man all three fell on the Government, Mr. McGovern with violence, Mr. Foot with passion and Mr. Crossman in his best didactic manner. "Oh!" cried Mrs. Mann in plaintive broad Scots, "if only I could be as Cocksure of anything as he is of everything." " He " on Mrs. Mann's audacious tongue meant Mr. Crossman. "He is an economist who bestrides the world like a Colossus," she resumed, and the Shakespearean echo and the malicious lilt in the Scots voice were irresistible. Mr. Walter Elliot made Mr. Foot his sport. It was not difficult to draw out the ridiculous in Mr. Foot's blazing hostility to the charges when compared with his repeated refusal to vote against them, but Mr. Elliot crowned it deliciously by suggesting here was something that even the most credulous marines in Devonport could not, be expected to swallow as being reasonable.
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