12 FEBRUARY 1965, Page 10

Tailpiece Last week Mr. Wilson refused to take his scat

while Mr. Maudling was speaking to a motion of censure. This week he did a Ken Barrington by walking out when he was caught. His insults to the House of Commons grow more numerous and more calculated. All the same it was an observation of Mr. Healey's in the aircraft de- bate which gave most delight to the Tories and is sure of a place in the Conservative Dictionary of Quotations for the next election. In the last few minutes of ploughing through an intermin- able brief the Secretary of State for Defence suddenly observed:

• It doesn't make any sense, in the modern world, to try to produce every component in one's de- fence system out of one's own exclusive national resources. It does not make sense to do so even for a single weapon.

Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full! And that, sir, is just what we stupid Tories have been saying for years about Polaris.

QUOODI.E