Notebook

At the end of last week the Liberal stagemanagers reduced to two the number of Kills required to put forward a candidate for the leadership. This was the interpretation Put upon their decision that only 10 Per cent of Liberal MPs should be required tO nominate a candidate. The interpretation Is odd, because it would seem that 10 per cent of thirteen is nearer to one than two, and should therefore be taken as one. But even reducing the number to two was a step HI the right direction, for those who are keen that the election should be truly democratic. Better still—from their point of view —would be a system of nominations that completely excluded the element of oligarchic veto by Liberal MPs. Why, they must be asking, br0 if Liberal associations are being ught into the process of election, should they not also be brought into the process of nomination ? Why should it not be made Possible for a number of Liberal associations, or a larger number of bona Me Individual Liberals, to nominate a candikciate whom even two Liberal MPs might 4.1esitate to put forward, for fear of getting into trouble with their colleagues? No names, no pack-drill.

‘‘'llen the Queen visits Australia next year, he may find a certain embarrassment. Her ost, sir John Kerr, has still to be forgiven by trl,anY Australians for his abrupt dismissal G. ough Whitlam as Prime Minister, and he is subjected to continuing harassment as "e goes about his vice-regal duties. It was incit surprising, perhaps, that students chose b°° and jostle the Governor-General u.'“!r1 he visited the Australian National a LliAversitY. But who would have expected in—fuate, middle-class audience at a concert L Canberra Theatre to hiss when Sir i —nand his wife arrived and even to stay ‘1‘1,. their seats when 'God Save the Queen' as.Played in his honour?

ith called off a luncheon engagement Melbourne City Council because

Labe members threatened a protest. wi-ahour councillors were delighted. 'We've b:n without a fight,' said one. 'He has be,g,tin .to refuse invitations, which is the ;1,111114 of the end for him.' Dubui.°rtlY afterwards, the Sydney Bulletin !shed a cartoon in which the Prime to "Ister, bent on economy, says: 'We have rn Cut the catering costs in half. . .' and a in4vji,°.rd°1110 suggests: 'How about always aen'.`ing Sir John Kerr?' Any savings outievci in this way, however, might be Dr vvt eighed by the novel cost of having to Po°1*-ect the Governor-General : the 131 in I,—,Men Who attended him on two eveng outings in Canberra cost more than

seven thousand dollars. When Sir John was recently appointed a GCMG, to give him parity of honours with the GovernorGeneral of New Zealand, the Melbourne Age called it 'an ill-timed and provocative gesture, which can only have the effect of making it still harder for SirJohn to go about his vice-regal duties.' Poor man. It seems hard enough already.

A thought about the Post Office for Mr Callaghan and other members of theGovernment. When the moment comes to replace Sir William Ryland as chairman, why not let Mr Tom Jackson have a go? As general secretary of the Union of Post Office Workers, the genial and intelligent Mr Jackson habitually displays good sense.

As he was saying at his annual conference this week : 'Less service and higher charges will kill the postal services. It is time that senior management learned that lesson, and if old dogs cannot be taught new tricks it is time for a change.' Self-evident, no doubt. But is it evident to Sir William Ryland and the other costly mandarins of the Post Office Board ?

Nor does Mr Jackson spare successive governments. 'We have been the victims of a supreme paradox,' he says. 'The Heath Government subsidised our industry in the name of counter-inflation. The Wilson Government, in the interest of counterinflation, took the subsidies away—two diametrically opposed policies inflicted upon our industry, both in the name of counterinflation and each of which have hurt both public and Post Office worker alike . . . Governments of both political complexions have reduced a once great public service to the level of a music-hall joke by playing shuttlecock with its policies.'

Like Sir William, Mr Jackson was once a modest servant of the Post Office (he was a messenger boy at first). He might do very well at the summit and make a better fist of things than the present Board.

Mr Robin Maxwell-Hyslop, the Conservative MP., deserves great credit for his attempt to arrest the progress of the Bill to nationalise much of the shipbuilding and aircraft .industries. His action was an example of single-minded initiative and resource allied to a command of the intricacies of parliamentary procedure such as few MPs possess. While the two industries cannot be saved from ultimate nationalisation unless the Labour Government is unseated, Mr Maxwell-Hyslop's delaying tactic was a reminder of what can be achieved by diligence and ingenuity in committee.

If only Mr Enoch Powell were a statesman instead of an exceedingly talented politician with a Messianic complex he would occasionally—just occasionally—make a speech drawing attention to all the good that immigrants from the new Commonwealth have done to our community. Coming from him such a speech would have a far more beneficent effect than if it were made by anyone else, and it would show that he is only worried about numbers, not about race as such. Of course there have been mistakes, and Mr Powell's very acute mind has sometimes detected what others have not seen. But he also has made his mistakes, of which by far the greatest has been his failure to acknowledge quality while endlessly bellyaching about quantity. Having won the confidence of all the Alf Garnetts he should turn round and challenge what he must know to be the lie in their souls. Or is it perhaps lurking in his soul too, unsuspected and concealed even from himself by intellectual sophistry ?

For violence of spirit, or vengefulness, however well-concealed across the bar, there is

nobody to touch the English publican if we are to judge from the proceedings at the annual conference of the National Union of Licensed Victuallers. Their own journal, Licensee, has circulated the following account this week: 'A strong call to bring back the birch and hangman's noose was made by nearly 1000 delegates.... With hardly a voice in opposition they agreed the need for corporal punishment to stop violence; the need for a referendum on capital punishment ; the need for harsher penalties for violence in pubs.

"If the do-gooders held a referendum I have no doubt it would be a resounding victory for sanity and a return to corporal and capital punishment," said ex-policeman Mr Sid Farr, of Colchester. "Bring back the birch and in extreme cases, the cat. No man has ever had the cat twice. Once has always done the trick. I ask you to support this because licensees are all exposed to the danger of all kinds of terrifying disfigurement."

'No one voted against him. The conference agreed that publicans needed special protection because they were often attacked while upholding the law and maintaining public order.'

This ferocious body of self-proclaimed floggers and hangers is said to represent more than 30,000 tenant licensees and free traders. Can they all be of the same mind ? Is it possible?

A ludicrous plan has been devised by the Greater London Council for the 'improvement' of the traffic situation in-Central London. From this autumn it is intended that taxis should be banned from Oxford Street, Regent Street and the Haymarket, in order to run a `speedbusservice along the route. Bitter opposition has come from taxi-drivers and from the police who say that they cannot be held responsible for the chaos which will result in the smaller streets between Marble Arch and Piccadilly Circus. There is another important reason for opposing this wretched scheme: a vast number of foreign visitors to London, having no command of our language, are in the habit of handing to a taxi-driver a slip of paper on which there is written the name of a shop where the foreigner wishes to go. How can the taxi-driver explain that he is unable to take him there? The foreigner will be mystified and angry; the many large shops along Oxford and Regent Streets will suffer. There is a perfectly adequate speedbus service already—underground.

The Yugoslav lawyer, Srdja Popovic, sentenced to one year's imprisonment in March for 'spreading false news' (see David Boulton's article in our issue of 22 May) has now had his sentence suspended by the Serbian appeal court. He was convicted, in effect, for doing his job, for defending a writer accused of criticising the regime.

However, Popovic has been disbarred from legal practice for a year, a penalty which was not imposed at his trial by the district court of Valjevo. The result is still most unsatisfactory, because Popovic's sentence has been suspended for two years, so that even when he returns to practice he will risk being sent to jail for carrying out his professional duties. While the convict ion stands the travesty of a criminal legal system remains in Yugoslavia.

Mr J. W. M. Thompson's appointment. as editor of the Sunday Telegraph, in succession to Mr Brian Roberts, is very pleasing to his friends at the Spectator, of which he was for' merly deputy editor. He joined the SuadaY Telegraph six years ago and will be the third editor since its inception in 1961, the other being the late Donald McLachlan, who Was also a contributor to this journal.

Among the three serious Sunday news; papers, the Telegraph has now outstriPPe' The Observer in sales. We wish it further sue' cess in John Thompson's hands. The Sunday Telegraph is, of course, L°rd Hartwell's brainchild and creation; and ht remains editor-in-chief as well as chairMan of both Telegraph newspapers. This was the role that his father, Lord Camrose, fulfilled with such success. To inherit one newspaper must be very agreeable; to establish another even more so. In an era of newspaper decline' Lord Hartwell's achievement stands out Miss Elizabeth Ray has alleged that during her amorous encounters with Congressman Wayne Hays he kept his eye throughout on the digital clock. Either in the Cole Porter original, or in Noel Coward's embellish' ment, the lines occur: Politicians en bloc do it;

Civil servants by the clock do it.

Perhaps they will have to be revised to take account of the increasingly political chard acter of civil servants, and the suggest% tendency of politicians to behave—even. the most improbable setting—like elv' servants.

Citizens who were concerned at the Prinief Minister's inability, through pressure ° work, to attend the Queen's birthday Par,ty', will be relieved to know that the Chanceli°' of the Exchequer, at any rate, is not ictda weighed down by the cares of office. 1°4 Wednesday he gave a late-night suPP% party for that delightful artiste, Miss Shirle't Maclaine. Good for the pound? Well' a any rate, good for Mr Healey's morale' and for Miss Maclaine's publicity.

It is good news that Mr Edward Heath Wille be bringing out a book on music in tbo autumn. Practising aesthetes are all to f rare nowadays in the higher ranks ° politics. He was musically the only n°11; Philistine Prime Minister we have had sine Arthur Balfour—another musical bachel°*re. As a Welshman Lloyd George should ha,' been in the running, but his taste was monplace. Even Mr Heath's very successc:a] book on sailing has had a curious musif if spin-off. When he was signing copies ° recently a middle-aged man came up t°111he and said it had inspired him to leartl„,ttic piano. When Mr Heath looked puzzled, he explained that it had struck thaj, if Mr Heath could take up oce3,.„e racing in middle life, he could do the °— with the piano.