AT WESTMINSTER
FROM the depths of Morecambe and the heights of Scar- borough members have scrambled back this week to the plane of the Agriculture (Poisonous Substances) Bill.
The reassembly of Parliament for the winding up of the present session has emphasised again one of the most wholesome features of our political system—the use of Parliamentary pro- cedure as a sedative. Mr. Harold Macmillan, for example, was so exalted by his reception at the Conservative Party conference in Scarborough that he quoted to the conference the opening line of the well-known lyric, " Ours is a nice house. ours is," which he articulated with a precision that would have made the phrase unrecognisable to any serious-minded comic. But at Westminster this week Mr. Macmillan was prodded by Mr. Walker-Smith, chairman of the Conservative members' committee, to produce quickly some scheme that would set going again the repair and maintenance of rent- controlled houses. In this Mr. Walker-Smith had the support of Mr. Wade for the Liberals.
* * * « So, too, the exuberance of Mr. Paget in pursuing Mr. Churchill for his failure to secure Britain's entry into the ANZUS pact was checked by Mr. Churchill's reminder that it was the late Government which first accepted the decision of Australia, New Zealand and the United States to keep Britain out. Mr. Churchill was not inclined to give any points away. Mr. Bellenger suggested that when the Prime Minister makes his statement next week on Britain's atomic explosion, the House would want to know about the civilian, as well as the military, aspects of the matter since so much of the taxpayers' money had been invested in the project. The original invest- ment (by the late Government), Mr. Churchill retorted, had been made without the House of Commons having any infor- mation of the purposes in view—" a striking episode," Mr. Churchill called it.
* • * * In this state of check and counter-check the House of Commons resumed its work with relative good humour. (The Lords reassembled on the non-party ground of Post Office robberies and vivisection.) Even the Licensing in New Towns Bill, for which the guillotine was rigged up before the recess, is now regarded as rather small beer, and the House was able to contemplate with some detachment the spectacle of Mr. Geoffrey Bing darting from one public-house to another in search of gravity. * * * * Procedure can do so much, but it cannot limit the ferment within the Parliamentary Labour Party which will take more than one week to subside—if it ever does before the pot boils over and wastes itself. Mr. Butler sprinkled a few drops of sul- phuric acid into the brew when he declined to compete with Mr.
Gaitskell as a master of insult. The rivalries and conflicts that were advertised during the Labour Party conference at Morecambe have been sharpened by public controversy since then. - But the Parliamentary Labour Party has a special obliga- tion to reach some kind of working agreement between the warring factions unless the Opposition is to stultify itself.
* * * * Middle opinion that is shocked by the extremists to right and left and is appalled by indulgence in personal abuse started to mobilise itself on the day of reassembly. Mr. Bevan and his friends are seeking means to prove that they do not constitute a party within a party—the most damaging charge so far brought against them. They may ostensibly conform. But observance of forms will not necessarily stifle consciences or bridle tongues. And the reward for such a sacrifice ? A prodigal's welcome ? Some Labour members would assent to that—if only to show their relief at the conclusion of an armistice. Others are inclined to insist on unconditional surrender, to try by all means to prevent the entry of any Bevanites into the Parliamentary committee. But a policy of unconditional surrender sometimes prolongs a struggle, and Mr. Bevan and his friends, remembering the Morecambe
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