Westminster Commentary
'IT is not the Government's wish or intention—or cer- tainly my intention... .' There is no mistaking the tone, let alone the undertone; the voice of Mr. Butler is heard once again in the land. I re- member hearing Mr. Butler, at a Tory Party confirence, not only refer to 'my econo- mic policy,' but warmly thank Cabinet colleagues for their support of it, where- at the smiles on the faces of those colleagues, sitting around him on the plat- form, grew a trifle locked. Yet Mr. Butler went gaily on his way, saying of Sir Anthony that 'he is the best Prime Minister' we have,' and of Mr. Macmillan, 'I am going to support this man and do all I can to help hint.' Is it possible that Mr. Butler still does not know why the Queen did not send for him? Or is he perhaps•urider the impres- sion that she did?
Mr. Butler's unfailing ability to keep his mouth open at moments of stress must command the reluctant admiration of even his opponents; more serious, however, are the tributes to his masterly performance during the committee stage of the Homicide Bill. There can be no doubt in the minds of those who watched this ludicrous Bill's progress (if that is the word) that Mr. Butler, alone among those entrusted with the glum work of defending it, has markedly increased in politi- cal stature. It can have been no easy task for Mr. Butler to fence, hour after hour, with so redoubtable, not to say wily; • an opponent as Mr. Silverman (whose disguise as Trotsky, by the by, grows daily more impenetrable). '
Mr. Butler has one of the most attractive speak- ing voices in the House of Commons; with his delicate modulations, and the perfect clarity of his diction, he brings to mind (and no disrespect is intended to either of them) Miss Eartha Kitt. But it is not only the sound of Mr. Butler that one has been able to admire during the past week; the studious moderation of his arguments, and the care with which he has marshalled them, were equally impressive. It is not easy to make sense of the Homicide it is quite impos- sible, as judges and juries will find to their cost if it should ever reach the Statute Book—but Mr. Butler has managed to make a good deal More sense out of it than anybody else.
Than Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller, for example. If recent political events have demon- strated anything at all it is that we need a new Attorney-General, and quickly. The one we have at the moment really won't do. There were days when an Attorney-General who left the Prime Minister entirely without a reply to a question about the legal position of British troops captured in Egypt would have been kicked upstairs pretty smartly. Those days appear to be past; and it was by an unfortunate accident of timing that the Homicide Bill was in the middle of its passage through the Commons when the change of gov- ernment occurred, making it particularly difficult for Mr. Macmillan to appoint somebody else in his place. But for sheer, good-natured, bumbling ineptitude Sir Reginald challenges comparison with 'Goody' Goderich or the first Viscount Brentford. He stands at the despatch-box as if he expected it at any moment to bite him, and his incoherence, I feel, provides complete exculpa- tion if it were to. When he tried to reject one of Mr. Silverman's amendments on the grounds that the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment had been in favour of the point enshrined in it by a majority of only one, and then found him- self almost immediately under the necessity of rejecting reforms which had had the unanimous support of the Commission, I fancied that I heard gasps even from the Public Gallery. It is note- worthy that Mr. Anthony Greenwood, who is in the habit of conducting an imaginary orchestra with his right foot, crossed over his left on the table, quickens the tempo when the Attorney- General begins to speak, as if only Mozart, or some equally brisk composer, can distract him from the stuff he is being compelled to listen to.
On the Opposition side, the major share of the credit from the Homicide Bill must go to Mr1 Silverman, with Mr. Leslie Hale, Mr. Greenwood, Mr. Paget (who made a fool of himself over the recent privilege cases, but has largely redeemed himself now) and Mr. Royle in close support. Mr. Silverman has made speech after speech on clause after clause; and each time he has found a fresh argument and a fresh way of putting it. Nobody, even now, leaves the House while Mr. Silverman is up, and that, in itself, is a tribute. His magnificent exchange with poor Colonel Bromley-Davenport, late on Wednesday night, when he accused that member of having dined rather too well, to be answered with the immor- tal yell, 'I have had no dinner at all, and nothing since lunch,' should be framed on the wall of every serious angler, as a demonstration of how to play a poor fish. When Colonel Bromley- Davenport had momentarily subsided. Mr. Silverman gently remarked: ' I accept at once the hon. and gallant Gentle- man's assurance that he has not merely not dined too well, but has not dined at all. I only wonder why he bothered to have any lunch, either. If that is the effect of such unaccustomed, abstinence I would suggest to hiin that he brings' his self-restraint to an end But Colonel Bromley-Davenport had still not had• enough. 'The hon. Member,' he spluttered. 'called attention to the fact that I was laughing. I was not laughing at what he said, but at his moronic method of delivery.' Mr. Silverman, with a courtly bow, observed that 'There is no Member . . . more qualified to form an opinion on such a point,' and far away, in Madrid, some matador was awarded both ears and the tail.
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