TV in the Commons
The arguments against allowing at least an edited version of the proceedings in the House of Commons to be shown daily on television are much the same as were once used to stop news- paper reporting. Members, it is said, will posture to the cameras: the same argument has been disproved at the three party conferences. It will be against ancient tradition: the same argument was used against the televising of the coronation inside Westminster Abbey. It will show the House of Commons warts and all--as it is, not as one likes to think it is: so much the better. There are no insuperable technical problems. The danger of doing nothing is that the House of Commons may become a secondary forum of political debate. If every seat in the Public Gallery was tilled twice every sitting day 100,000
'And she died with her hoots on.' people could watch the House of Commons in action each year. Eight and a half million people watch Panorama every Monday night.
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