30 AUGUST 1940, Page 3

What has Parliament been doing three days a week for

three months? First of all, it has asked Ministers of the day nearly 4,000 questions, and, even assuming that zo per cent. were redundant and unnecessary, 3,000 remain. Secondly, it has entrusted the Executive with dictatorial powers over industry, agriculture, labour, the Press and the liberty of the subject ; hundreds of questions and hours of debate have been con- cerned with safeguarding those powers and correcting abuses. Thirdly, it has passed a Budget which included a Purchase Tax and a new method of collecting income-tax from a wider catchment area of the population.