The Week in Parliament Our • Parliamentary Correspondent writes :
There is always something curiously macabre about disturbances in the Public Gallery. Members are entirely unaware in the ordinary course of business that they are being watched from above, and when this silent audience suddenly breaks into an uproar, it is a peculiarly un- pleasant reminder of the great forces outside who are our real masters. Monday's demonstration was all the more disquieting, since it followed an attack on the Government as bitter and as violent as any that has been made in this Parliament. But the venom with which the criticisms were made gives a wrong impression of the extent of the grievances. The majority of members were frankly puzzled over the whole business. They had visited their constituencies in the Recess and had made special enquiries as to the working of the new regulations, and had received no substantial complaints. Some of them immediately put through trunk calls to the officials in their areas to find out if any sudden grievance had arisen and received reassuring answers. It seems clear that the hardships were confined to isolated areas, except in Scotland where the low standard of rents, that now form a factor in the assessment of relief, had led to a reduction of payments.
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