A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
THE committee stage of the Trade Disputes Bill, The Times pre- dicted on Monday, would be conducted "in the eristic spirit of the second reading." Readers of that great paper, being properly conversant with the meaning of " eristic," had their expectations duly aroused, and in the main they were not disappointed. Mr. Quintin Hogg and Mrs. Braddock were, on the whole, superfluously cristic ; but the whole proceedings were rather unreal, thanks to the declared intention of the Government to pay no attention to any Opposition argument however ably put (and Mr. Reid, Mr. Butler and Mr. Hogg did put their cases very ably indeed). That is the real trouble in this Parliament. The Government majority is so large that nothing the Opposition says affects an issue if the issue is one on which party tempers run high. In such conditions what is the value of Opposition speeches? Much less, of course, than if the newspapers were able to report them properly, or if more of the general public read Hansard. Still, they have no doubt some educa- tive value, and in any case the business of an Opposition is to oppose. To return to the Trade Disputes Bill debate. it served to intensify regrets that the good custom of wearing hats in the Chamber (observed occasionally in this House by Miss Wilkinson and Mr. Naylor) has been abandoned. A point of order after a division has been called can only be raised by a Member "seated and covered," and when Sir Thomas Moore wanted to equip himself to this end on Tuesday, the Chairman rul•tcl that an Order Paper was not sufficient covering. A hat was fetched in just in time from outside, but the point of order failed. A spare hat in the custody of the Serjeant-at- Arms would be a convenience—but in these days it would need to be closely guarded. (Eristic, by the way, means disputatious.)
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