AT WESTMINSTER
TECHNIQUE and tactics are as important in the House of Commons as in other arenas of conflict ; and this week's proceedings have provided two interesting illustrations. The first was on the Closed Shop issue,. the second on the Coal Debate. The Conservative Opposition at their Conference at Blackpool showed unmistakably their wish to raise the closed shop issue early and often. The first efforts, at question-time last week, were not very successful, Mr. Isaacs breaking contact without much difficulty, if perhaps with no great dignity. But one of the merits of our Parliamentary system is that controversial matter, expelled by the Ministerial fork, can nearly always return by some alternative route. There are debates on the Adjournment, on the Consolidated Fund Bill, and other convenient opportunities for guerilla warfare.
* * Mr. Harry Strauss did not even have to wait for one of these opportunities. Mr. Isaacs on Monday was asking the House to approve the Motion relating to the Fair Wages Clause in Govern- ment contracts. In the main the matter was non-controversial. But in a two-word Amendment Mr. Strauss was able to raise the ques- tion of the closed shop and loose the winds of controversy on the calm waters of the debate. The storm, of course, has not blown itself out : indeed, this was really only a preliminary squall, as obviously this matter must in the end be debated, not as a side-wind, but fair and square and head-on. The unsatisfactory part of the debate was the apparent unwillingness of Mr. Isaacs and Mr. Ness Edwards either to disentangle themselves altogether from the horns of the dilemma, obligingly provided by Mr. Strauss and his friends, or to plant themselves firmly and uncompromisingly upon either horn. The effect of the Amendment was to substitute for the words " trade unions " the words " any trade union " in the clause requiring the contractors " to recognise the freedom of the workpeople to be members of trade unions," and the dilemma in which Mr. Boyd- Carpenter put the Government was this. If the Government thought that the Amendment made no difference presumably they would accept it, as unambiguous phraseology is clearly preferable to ambiguous. If it did make a difference, the Government should explain whether it was their intention to make the closed shop possible in the works of contractors engaged on Government contracts.
* * To some extent this was a lawyers' debate. Now opinions are sharply divided on the merits of lawyers as politicians. It is a point that I have always found interesting ; and I try to view it as objec- tively as I can. The general truth, I think, is that they are first-class debaters and only—with some notable exceptions—second-class political thinkers. This debate certainly provided evidence in favour of the former contention. Mr. Strauss, Mr. Boyd-Carpenter, and Mr. Hogg from the Opposition benches, and Mr. Silverman from below the gangway, all made excellent, well-pointed speeches, and all are lawyers, the first three from the more talkative branch of the profession and Mr. Silverman a very talkative member of the junior branch.
The other illustration of Parliamentary tactics was furnished by the skilful Mr. Shinwell, in Wednesday's coal debate. Having won the toss, he elected to put Captain Crookshank in to bat first, a device perhaps borrowed from his former fellow-guerilla, Mr. Bevan. This was shrewdly done, because Captain Crookshank, while for- midable in opening, is positively devastating in reply. Despite Mr. Shinwell's reversal of the logical order of precedence, the House had a Very good Parliamentary afternoon. Captain Crookshank is an experienced gadfly of debate. His stings may not be mortal, but they are wounding, and implanted with an artistry of timing and precision. Mr. Shinwell is also a very able Parliamentary debater, and on this occasion was all the better by reason of avoiding his twin besetting sins of over-confidence and bad temper. In my view, he was right in the centre of the target when he defined the central problem as being one of making the industry attractive to those engaged in it. Success in that undertaking is surely the condition of
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