AT WESTMINSTER
1 T has been a quiet week at Westminster, the subdued tone of questions and debates being matched by the thin curtain of fog which has shrouded every corner of the Palace and obscured the little daylight that usually manages to creep in. "Candles" were alight at all hours.
Monday began with Mr. Strauss announcing the report of the Lemon Committee on standardisation in industry, an immediate comment upon which was that the recommendations were a timely addition to the Prime Minister's statement of the previous week. Labour criticism has begun to crystallise and to cavil not at the moderation of the cuts but at the lack of definite proposals for increasing production. If the Minister of Supply succeeds in inducing industry to act quickly upon the Lemon recommendations he will set an example which many Government supporters want to see vigorously imitated in other spheres. Mr. Gaitskell returned to familiar ground when Sir John Mellor asked him to abolish red petrol, and had the majority of both sides of the House with him when he refused. Red petrol has been one of the most conspicuously successful controls introduced since the war and has killed the black market in motor spirit. The colour can be taken out in more than one way, but all the processes are too elaborate to become widespread.
* * * * Those who hoped that the discussion of the Parliament Bill would collapse and allow them an early night were disappointed. Mr. Ede was plainly not interested in repeating arguments which he had stated twice already and sat down in less than half an hour, but the Opposition were determined not to miss such an opportunity for electioneering and warmed up well to their task. Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe reiterated the claim that in saving the country from the abolition of capital punishment the House of Lords had been closer to the mass of the people than the Commons.
* * * * Mr. Geoffrey Bing enjoyed himself and managed to talk about Ireland, which is his passion, and Professor Savory answered. During a speech which was always gay, and in which arguments from history came to mind haphazard as he talked, the Professor suddenly attacked the methods by which the Parliament Act of 1911 had been passed as unconstitutional. He described the threat to create Peers as a " very unfortunate abuse of the Royal Prerogative " and went on: " Mr. Asquith took advantage of the inexperience of a new Sovereign.. . ." Mr. Speaker was on his feet at once, frowning severely. "Casting aspersions on His Maiesty; even His Late Majesty I will not have." The Professor' apologised and after saying that the aspersions were meant for Mr. Asquith continued his argument. By tea-time the Government benches were thinning and the' Whips could be heard making unusual and flattering suggestions to back bcnchcrs whom they normally do their best to keep silent. The response was just equal to the occasion; and although one or two Members made free use of quotations from speeches which had been made in previous debates, they managed to prevent it from developing into a Conservative solo. Both Mr. Lennox-Boyd and Mr. Morrison made stirring appeals to the electorate and the House then divided.
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Wednesday saw Mr. Bevan taking charge of the Bill to abolish the Boundary Commission, but apart from a rather injudicious intervention by Mr. Turton, who repeated a story that had appeared in the Hereford Times in which Mr. Bevan was alleged to have said he wished to abolish the smaller local councils, there was little excitement. The story had so little foundation that not even the Minister of Health could make much of it. The division came at, nine-thirty, but the lobbies were still crowded and the word went round that the Lords were still sitting. They rose soon afterwards, having concluded the first day of their debate on the economic state of the nation. The most interesting announcement came from Lord Calverley who said that the General Election was to take place on July 6th. The Opposition thanked him for the information, but he is understood to have qualified it later by admitting that it was
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