I HAVE ENCOUNTERED much annoyance about the cool reception given
to Mark Bonham Carter on his appearance in the House of Commons, where he was greeted by members of the two main parties with embarrassed silence : surely they might have had the common decency to applaud? Part of the trouble, admittedly, is that the Com- mons traditionally do not clap. It is easy to clap politely without feeling hypocritical; not so easy to cheer. Perhaps the Commons might adopt the alternative favoured in some small Parisian bones de twit, presumably in order to avoid waking the neighbours. At the end of any cabaret turn the audience applaud by flipping their fingers : a mild approving sound suitable, I would think, for greet- ing members of parties of whose politics you disapprove. Still, even if there were technical diffi- culties, MPs should not have allowed themselves to be so churlish and disagreeable as to leave Mr. Bonham Carter to get, literally, three cheers.
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