Corridors . . .
PUZZLE ADMIRES those with a sense of humour in the face of adversity. He therefore commends the Tory Whips for sending out a notice to their members, during the demands for the declaration of Members' interests, inviting them to a talk by a merchant banker. The title of his address was Invisible Earnings.'
PUZZLE CAN REVEAL that the Government has a final master plan to persuade the nation that it would be a good thing to go into Europe. January I will be declared a national holiday so that a grateful nation may rejoice. Except, of course, in North Britain.
PUZZLE HEARS that a most useful suggestion was made in the Labour Shadow Cabinet. It was that a Shadow Official Solicitor be appointed to state the other side in Labour Party internal disputes.
AS PUZZLE LISTENED to Mr Paul Channon making the important statement on the army occupation of the ' no-go ' areas he remembered how his father ' Chips ' Channon longed for this kind of success. One of the most redeeming features of the old buffer was his devotion to his son. He recorded in his diary how he went to Parliament on December 15, 1947 to hear the tributes to Stanley Baldwin and . . . "As I walked away from the House I looked up at the red bones — the steel girders, of the new House of Commons; and I wondered when my small son's voice would vibrate in it." The statement on Monday would have made the old chap proud.
THERE ARE SOME GRAVE matters which cut straight across party divisions. Such a matter is that of whisky. There are hints of a threat to limit the scale of production within the EEC on the grounds of health. As yet there are no grounds for panic, although one French president did try to turn his nation to milk. Parliament is at its best in a crisis and, Tory MP Mr Ian MacArthur heads a newly-formed committee, which includes Dr Dick Mahon, to press the economic claims of the water of life. Apparently Mr Rippon is most sympathetic.
PUZZLE IS GLAD to say that military pundits, even those with political experience, are no more successful than racing correspondents. Before the comparatively bloodless occupation of the nogo ' areas by the army he had a lengthy discussion on the tactics which would be necessary, with one of the senior military officers who adorn the Commons benches. The grand old man had a strategy which involved the creation of refugee camps for women and children, three-week warnings about the cutting of all essential supplies and a week without electricity, gas or water. In the event the modern chaps proved correct. Maybe there's nothing wrong with the army after all.
Tom Puzzle
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