A Spectator's Notebook

There is a practice in the television business that seems to need the attention of some such body as the Performing Rights Society. When a Personality is interviewed for a fixed fee in front of the cameras for a major programme, a good deal of extra film is naturally shot from Which the final version is edited. This is expected and understood by the parties to the contract. However, there have been cases recently when, after enough material for the immediate purpose has been filmed, the producer has suggested quietly to the interviewer via his earpiece that the conversation should continue to run. The residual material is presumably useful for re-sale or for a future production or even for an obituary programme. In a recent instance, a conversation continued for a full hour longer than was strictly necessary because the well-known old party before the cameras was in full stride. Given the ignorance and innocence of the average non-professional when faced with the mysteries of the studio, it is not surprising that objections are seldom made.

Retrospective progress

Among the more encouraging events of the .Easter holiday has been the appearance, in the

streets of London, of a horse omnibus drawn by a well-matched pair of Percherons and loaded with cheerful passengers enjoying the sights of the Metropolis from an unusually healthy .vantage point. In these dark, inflationary days Of

'Slipshod workmanship and built-in Obsolescence, it is indeed both surprising and gratifying to discover that there lives in the depths of the Essex countryside a master coachbuilder called Douglas Eley who has devoted his spare time to rebuilding this handsome relic of a more stable era, and that he has done so with meticulous attention to detail a. nd finish, regardless of time and effort. What is 1,ess gratifying, but even more surprising, nowever, is to discover that when this omnibus was originally plying for hire some seventy Years ago, it was scheduled to cover about six r mniles in each hour, whereas the modern London omnibus barely covers half that distance in the same time. This comparison, together with the rising post of petroleum, must lead us seriously to consider the advantages of reverting to horse c.ransport on a larger scale. Not only in the interest of elegance, but also because the waste Products are a good deal more acceptable. They '1'.1a3' occasionally soil the carelessly placed foot but they are probably unsurpassed as garden fertiliser and certainly do not get into the lungs to cause cancer.

Power and power cuts

Pr. ophets of disaster often have to wait a long time before they are proved correct. Mr Ross IVIcWhirter, who has been warning of the Possibility of government losing communication with the people through the cutting off of electricity supplies, silencing press, radio and televiston simultaneously, is in danger of setting LIP a record for speed of gloom fulfilment. It is only three weeks since he Uttered his warning in an announcement in the colunms read on of The Spectator. Now, as you can Page 394, four unions, headed by the electricians,, are meeting this week to fix the date of a twenty-four-hour strike when all

supplies of electricity will be cut off throughout Great Britain.

McWhirter would appear to be a chip off the old block.. His father, W. A. McWhirter, will be remembered by those with long memories in 'the Street' as a former editor of three 'nationals' including the Daily Mail. McWhirter, Sr, was in a club of two during the general strike of 1926. He edited and published a strike edition of the Sunday Pictorial. The other member of that club was Winston Churchill, who edited the British Gazette.

European Movement

Anthony Gamill has been appointed the professional fund-raiser attached to the European Movement. He should be able to count on generous gifts from big business and, more significantly, from sources close to the Brussels establishment itself. It can now be revealed that the European Movement's chairman of the campaign fund is to be Lord Drogheda, the former chairman of the Financial Times and the Westminster Press group controlled by Lord Cowdray. Drogheda's assistant is to be Sir William Barnetson of United Newspapers (Britain's most profitable newspaper chain), ultimately controlled by what used to be called the Harley Drayton and 117 Old Broad Street Group.

Lady dominoes

It may be that the domino theory is about to operate in British politics. For, Mrs Thatcher having been elected leader of the Conservative Party, a woman is standing for the chairmanship of the Bow Group. She is Patricia Hodgson, television producer and journalist and one of the intellectually most forceful people in the Group's affairs in recent years. It may even be that she will have no opponents, since the only one so far to surface — one Ian Clarke, of whom it has been said that, though on the left of the party, he is more interested in the social and organising side than in policy formulation — is uncertain whether he wants to stand. He must make up hiS mind by April 7, when nominations close. Without being in any way hostile to Clarke, a most amiable chap, I cannot help thinking that the Group would be best served, in what is going to be a period of very serious policy re-thinking, by Patricia Hodgson.

Lobby Lyrics-21

The noble Earl, Lord Netherwood's, Attendance record wasn't good, For, sometimes, he would not appear Much more than once or twice a year And, when he did so, he'd be seen In hairy tweed of muddy green, That you would reckon would go down Far better in some market town. Now, though there may be people who Would say this sort of thing won't do And those who have the right to sit Should do so or opt out of it, The noble Earl would never rise, Except to utter something wise; These rare performances would bring More benefit than everything That many lesser peers would say, Who bored their Lordships every day.

Ogilvy Lane is the pseudonym of a member of the House of Lords.