MR. R. A. BUTLER'S television interview was dis- appointing, presumably
because the terms on which the interview was arranged prevented Mr. Robin Day—who normally does not allow his subjects to escape so easily—from following up prepared with unprepared questions. But at least Mr. Butler was not pompous, nor was he smooth. He did not once say, 'I am glad you asked that question,' and then go on to answer a different one, though, understandably, he blatantly failed to give a straight or any other answer to the question whether the Government had been fair in giving the impression that Mr. Thorneycroft wanted to slash the social services. Later in the interview Mr. Butler said, 'We represent the public and the press pretty well and therefore if we're small the people outside must be small too.' Half the present Members of Parliament went to public schools, so I suppose Mr. Butler would say it follows that half the population of this country went to them too. On the Wolfenden report Mr. Butler hedged to the point of absurdity, and as for his justification of the Whips—q think we've got to do a certain amount of looking after our. people.' . . . Well! Party discipline, he went on to say, 'does mean that people get an opportunity to do their service in Parliament and to be told when to come and to be told what business is on and then be told what is the Government line.' Not even Mr. Foulkes has perpetrated a worse defence of the party line.
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