THE GOVERNMENT'S suspension of the fourteen-day rule is a welcome
retreat from an indefensible position. I only hope that the rule has not been replaced by a backstairs agreement which will in fact though not in form leave the situation unaltered. Tuesday's exchanges in Parliament certainly give grounds for suspicion. The Prime Minister referred to the BBC and ITA having undertaken 'not to derogate from the primacy of Parliament as the forum for debating the affairs of the nation.' It would be interesting to know how the BBC or the ITA, if they had not so agreed, would set about derogating from this primacy of Parliament. Judging by the last few weeks, any derogation can safely be left to Parliament itself. IF MPS WOULD take themselves less seriously, other people might take them more so. They were at their most self important on Monday and Tuesday, when, although the Speaker with his invariable gobd sense deprecated the propo' sal, they insisted that an article in the Sunday Express criticis- ing MPs' supplementary petrol allowances should be referred to the Committee of Privileges. The House of Commons has a long and, it must be admitted, depressing record in the matte' of disputes with the press; and if there is one lesson which it has been taught time and again it is that where articles are beneath contempt they should be left there—not taken seri• ously. The article in question, as might be expected in that newspaper, seems to have been quite inaccurate. But the House must always ask itself (as the Attorney-General argued on a similar occasion in 1805) 'whether the libel is of that magnitude and importance to make it a fair subject 01 prosecution.' And Tuesday's complaint about a cartoon in the Evening News was even more foolish. As for one or two of the arguments in favour of taking action against the news' papers, nothing like them has been heard since Sandwich denounced Wilkes—the prize for pomposity going to Mr. Paget, who, having admitted condescendingly that the House allowed comment in the newspapers, asked, had it ever gone farther: are the newspapers 'free to lie'? I suppose that is a privilege which is now to be reserved to politicians.
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