AM SORRY that my colleague Taper missed the '1 spy
strangers' episode which also took place in the Commons on Tuesday; in its petty way it was very typical of the kind of thing that is helping to bring Parliament into public ridicule. Mr. George Wigg behaved like a schoolboy who has long tried to extort the admiration, or even the notice, of his schoolfellows by making him- self a nuisance, ald succeeding only in arousing their irritation and contempt; so he eventually thinks up a way which will force them to notice him—switching out the school lights at the mains on the correct assumption that nobody will know how to switch them on again. This sort of antics may help to while away the time at Westminster on a dull evening when nobody is interested in the subjects under debate (the whole affair started because there was no quorum); but the effect out- side is to confirm the belief that MPs as a group in their institution are incorrigibly childish. if they want to stand on their dignity, as they st) often do when they think their privileges are threatened, it would be wise for them to heel) some dignity to stand on.
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