25 JANUARY 1957, Page 7

THE COMMONS COMMITTEE OF PRIVILEGES, however, instead of simply asking

the editor of the Sunday Express to make it clear the article was not intended to reflect on Parliament, urged that he should be severely reprimanded; and as a result, other MPs have been emboldened to bring for- ward some still more far-fetched privilege com- plaints—even one against Mrs. Mary Stocks for a statement casually thrown out in a BBC broad- cast! Fortunately the very extravagance of some MPs' allegations seems to have made members realise that they are in danger of becoming—in Mr. Godfrey Nicholson's words—pompous and hypersensitive. The best thing the Commons can do is to get out of this whole foolish business as quickly and as unobtrusively as they can.

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