REPORTING BISHOPS
heard the Wolfenden Report debate on December 4 last from the Strangers' Gallery in the Lords. The Bishop of Rochester used the expres- sions reported by the newspapers—if not Hansard, which I haven't seen—including 'there are such things as sodomy clubs. There was one in Oxford between the wars. I am credibly informed there was another in Cambridge which even shamelessly sported a tie.' This last remark evoked some laughter from the noble Lords and people in the Gallery. At the time the Bishop, warming to his subject, was moving appreciably. Perhaps in doing so he became momentarily inaudible to some sections of the House, including the official reporter. I, using one of the
head-rest microphones, certainly heard him all right.
Incidentally, eighteen peers spoke in the debate that day. I marked my card as follows : ten members were outrightly in favour of taking action favourable to the Committee's recommendations; two partially so; and six dead against. The Wolfenden Committee reached their conclusions by a vote of twelve to one. In view of the Government's 'no action' decision can we not observe, as Sir Winston Churchill once did in another context, that 'even majorities. have their rights"?—Yours faithfully,
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