The Week in Parliament Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes : The
out- standing event of the week was the revolt of the Government's supporters in numbers unprecedented during this Parliament upon the amendment to the Unemployment Bill on the assessment of the needs of a child. The House of Commons has not been so lively. for a long time past, and the official opposition tasted for once the joys of backing a cause popular beyond their own ranks. There is, however, only one definite conclusion to be drawn from the incident., namely, that the House of Commons is in no mood to put economy in the forefront of policy, and suspects the Bill of being an economy measure. A few concessions upon other parts of the Bill will almost certainly restore harmony. The critics would do much better if they understood the Bill. The main features of other debates on the Bill' were the pleasant impression made by the new Solicitor General, whose only fault is a tendency to inaudibility, and the emergence of a promising back-bencher in Mr. J. S. C. Reid, who blew the fiery Mr. Bevan out of the water, and showed up the tendency of Socialist intellectuals to daily with the idea of dictatorship.
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