. It was suggested to me the other day that
the surest way of killing confidence in Parliamentary government would be to give regular broadcasts of Parliamentary debates. My own opinion is exactly the opposite— assuming that some arrangement could be made for giving the best speeches and some of the livelier episodes. The difficulty lies in the, inadjustibility of B.B.C. pro- grammes. There are some occasions,. such as that of a Budget speech, when it would be easy enough to fix an hour for broadcasting ; but more often than not it is impossible to foresee when the more interesting speeches in the House will occur—it is not always at the summing up at the end of a debate, when incidentally Ministers would get the best of it. I suppose the most democratic method would be to give a solid hour chosen at random on days of important debates, when Minisiers and back- benchers would have an equal chance of addressing. the whole nation. But the character of Parliamentary oratory would be likely to suffer a sea-change during the allotted period. There would be competition to catch the Speaker's eye as the time approached, and a certain liveliness in debate which would interfere somewhat with Parliamentary business though it might have compensa- tory advantages.
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