ON SUNDAY the Free Speech team on commercial television w 99
not allowed to discuss Suez because of this week's debate on 0, subject in the House of Lords. The fourteen-day rule, whit; " prevents wireless and television discussion of any topic that is going to be debated in Parliament during the next fortnight' has always seemed to me to be a quite unwarranted denial (l the right of freedom of speech. But whatever one may thing at it in general, surely it shows a slight absence of humour on the part of our rulers to make the rule apply to debates in the Lords as well as the Commons. The official arguments for the rule are, I think, that public interest in Parliament must not be (Unfinished by competition on the part of broadcasting, and that Parliament must not be subjected to outside influence. Lord Salisbury himself would hardly claim that there is any Public interest in the House of Lords to be diminished; indeed the public is as indifferent to debates in the Lords as their lordships are themselves. And the only influence broadcast debate is likely to have on peers is to encourage them to visit the hereditary chamber more often.
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