Parliament's Rights
SIR,—One question of urgent public importance arises from the unhappy Bentley case. It is whether the High Court of Parliament—made up as is it of 600-odd men and women, each with an inescapable personal responsibility to God and to the people of,Britain whom they represent —should submit any longer to having its powers of discussion of any urgent question limited by the " dead hands " of hoary precedent asid rule. _
The highly artificial rules of Parliamentary procedure do, of course, set up some interesting hazards in the elaborate parlour-game of party politics; but do they in practice help in the good governance of Britain ? The intensely personal responsibility which rests on every representative of the British people for everything which is done in their name cannot, I think, be stressed too forcibly, if our democratic Government is to function really healthily.—Yours faithfully,
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