AT WESTMINSTER
TIME played a curious trick on the House of Commons this week. Mr. Herbert Morrison had been rummaging in the archives on Monday to find a Conservative witness to the value of state control of civil aviation, and he produced the testimony of the late Sir Kingsley Wood in moving the second reading of a bill in 1939. The quiet mood of the House while Mr. Morrison was speaking encouraged reflection. It was a shock to realise how far distant the days of Sir Kingsley's prime seemed in retrospect—less immediate almost than the glorious antagonisms of Gladstone and Disraeli. Mr. Morrison, one thought, might have been quoting from some obscure medizeval text far outside the knowledge of his hearers. At this point, reflection was diverted to other lines by the sharp intervention of Mr. Perkins, of Stroud and Thornbury. Labour, he reminded Mr. Morrison, had voted against the second reading of Sir Kingsley's bill. The intensity of Mr. Perkins's recollection of the occasion was another shock which brought more of that strangely remote period to mind. Mr. Perkins had of course been a notable airman-politician in those days, before the Second World War produced a new generation of pilots to remind us all of our years. But one was grateful to Mr. Morrison for calling Sir Kingsley back to mind. Ho was in some respects Mr, Morrison's political twin—hard- working, ingenious in party warfare, and happy in office.
* * * The House is now wallowing in ' supply.' The word refers strictly to money but really means speeches. On the Air Estimates last week the House sat all night. The debate on the Navy Estimates, which began on Tuesday, ended at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, and Labour made great plans to keep the Army Estimates going as long as possible on Thursday. There is certainly always a great deal to be said about the, Services, and indeed on Tuesday Mr. Callaghan made a remarkably good speech for the Opposition. His 'youthful appearance and his assurance tend to irritate the other side of the House, as the brashness of the younger generation always will, but Mr. Callaghan bases his assurance on hard work and clothes it in a fluent style. The Army Estimates led straight to Suez— a tantalising subject for Labour Members anxious to induce Tory rebels to vote with them against the Government. Never- theless there is an element of tradition in forcing the House to sit all night on the Service Estimates, and though there are boyish hearts on both sides of the House which enjoy this as a lark, there are others (also on both sides of the House) who wonder if strategy, or even tactics, can be discussed fruitfully around four 'o'clock in the morning.
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The Lords have diversified the Parliamentary week by holding debates on Malaya (Wednesday) and on the political security of the Boy Scout movement (Thursday), and the Commons took an hour off on Tuesday to tell the Chancellor of the Exchequer that women should now be given equal pay with men for equal work. This demonstration was as bracing as a trip to the sea, and in its way as evocative as Mr. Morrison's reference to Sir Kingsley Wood. Mrs. Thelma Cazalet-Keir's hardihood in 1944, when she carried the principle of equal pay for teachers against that mighty Government by a majority of one, was recalled with pride. No doubt Miss Ward, who continues the equal pay campaign in the present House, would willingly challenge Sir Winston as Mrs. Cazalet-Keir did if she had the chance. But Labour is equally pressing, and no one dissented on Tuesday when Mr. Houghton asked the House to let him bring in a bill to impose equal pay. The Chancellor handled the affair with good humour and discretion. He said nothing which would prevent him from introducing equal pay this year : nor did he make any promises.
J. F. B.
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