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TOM PUZZLE PASSES the following extract on without comment. It is taken from an Aims of Industry pamphlet entitled Economic Argument.'
" The fundamental difference between the government of the United Kingdom and that of EEC is that while legislation here is in general initiated by Parliament to be carried out by the Civil Service, in the Common Market the officials think up what needs to be done to further the Community's approach, and then submit measures to the politicians, who meet comparatively rarely.
"A possible danger to be watched is that diligence in interpreting what they conceive to be the Market's philosophy could at times push the officials — who are bureaucrats more than practical businessmen — to make extreme proposals which the political heads might rubberstamp.
'It will always, of course, be necessary for commerce and industry to put their point of view to the UK's political rulers. But when it comes to matters within EEC's province, any steps taken on the limited, local scale of national politics only are bound to be less effective than if we made our voice heard in Europe."
BEING AN INCURABLE romantic, Puzzle could not resist taking that intrepid couple who rowed across the Pacific, Miss Cook and Mr Fairfax, to meet Colonel Crawshaw, the fifty-four-year-old Labour chap who recently beat the world walking record. (I would have introduced them to more journalists but regret to report that some of my fellows showed a quite prurient interest in the more intimate arrangements of the long voyage.) The colonel sympathised with the sharkbitten arm of Mr Fairfax and explained that he found the pain in his feet disappeared once the blisters burst and merged into his socks. The colonel also explained that he enjoyed parachuting because the prospect of death in ten seconds made life seem better. Mr Fairfax agreed that this was what nobody ever understood when they asked him why he went on dangerous voyages. Tom Puzzle felt faint and repaired to the nearest bar.
PUZZLE HAS A STERN warning, A certain Mr Selby is liable to arrive on behalf of the Labour Party after the next election. He will succeed Mr John Rankin in Glasgow, Govan, and apparently is a more boisterous, vulgar version of Mr Dennis Skinner. Puzzle is not biased. When it was announced that Mr Selby had 'lost in the local elections a Labour member muttered softly, " Labour Gain."
PUZZLE HEARS a whisper that many young Conservative backbenchers view the Museums Charges Bill as an unnecessary thorn in their flesh.
WITH THE INCREASED parliamentary salaries there are now problems about the seating capacity for guests in the Members' Dining Rooms.
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