5 NOVEMBER 1965, Page 7

PQs Dr. King, the new Speaker of the House of

Commons, has started with a batting average of over sixty for questions reached daily. A run a minute is excellent going. Happy faces all round except for a few bores, and perhaps for the front-benchers. Ministers will now have to be in their places even when they are well down the list, in case they are reached: Mr. Callaghan was caught out, absent without leave, by the speed of the new regime. And if supplementaries are often going to be limited to one from the original questioner, front-bench Opposition spokesmen are going to have fewer chances of getting in on the act. But this is a small price to pay for a quickening of the tempo of question time,