A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK T HE House of Commons listened with
little less than astonish- ment to a new Sir Stafford Cripps on Tuesday night. A
greater contrast than between the speech with which the Chancellor opened the Budget debate and the speech with which he wound it up could hardly be imagined. The one was a model of dispassionate exposition with hardly a party note in it, the other an impassioned utterance such as the Chancellor has never before delivered in this Parliament, bristling with party points in every sentence. Sir Stafford thumped the box—again almost without precedent—he discarded his manuscript, as he scourged the Opposi- tion he turned to his own party to invite their cheers, he put up, in short, a very fair impersonation of the Minister of Health on an exerting night. He was evidently for getting right with his party after a Budget more popular with Tories than with Labour. Much of the Chancellor's attack was directed against .Mr. Oliver Stanley's broadcast (Mr. Stanley was unfortunately away ill), but Mr. Lyttelton got it, Sir John Anderson got it, and always with a successful bid for Labour cheers (" The party opposite want financial incentives for management ; we want higher wages for the workers " [Loud cheers]: " the Right Hon. gentleman was anxious not to increase the social services ; we want to increase social services as rapidly as possible up to the limit of our financial capacity " [Loud cheers], and so on). One hit caused interested speculation—the observation that the Chancellor could unfortunately not declare his intentions beforehand and remain Chancellor of the Exchequer. The reference was obvious, and the loud laughter and cheers which greeted it were intensified when by pure accident Mr. Dalton entered the Chamber just at the moment from behind the Speaker's chair. What was the Chdncellor after? Was it just that the temptation to a good joke was irresistible ? Or was it—what ?
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