A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
IT is rather surprising that Lord Ullswater should maintain that the Speaker has " all the advantages and disadvantages of having a constituency." He obviously has not the disadvantage of having to fight for it, whilst the constituency has all the disadvantage of being virtually disfranchised. The Labour Party, in deciding to run a candidate for the Daventry Division, has merely brought to a head a question that ought to have been settled long ago. It is not a healthy thing that any one constituency over a long term of years should be deprived of that practical stimulus to political life which is afforded by the running of candidates or the support of programmes. The Speaker today cannot represent a constituency either in the sense of being chosen by it or being able to speak for it in debate. He represents not a constituency, but the House of Commons.
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