Gagging the Commons
The Government's decision, taken in the face of all argument, reason and respect for Parliamentary tradition, to force the Transport and Town and Country Bills through committee under the guillotine has. done more than any other step taken since the General Election to bring the House of Commons into discredit. There is not the smallest justification for such procedure. Mr. Greenwood's remark that the Government wanted to avoid an autumn session if possible was damning. Instead of sitting normally as long as may be neces- sary to get the mass of Bills before the House rationally discussed the Government propose to drive them, with parts half-discussed, parts undiscussed, through committee by a fixed date in order to get them on the statute-book at any cost. The increasing invasion of the rights of the House by the Government with its compliant majority should be better appreciated in the country than it is. First, all private members' time is taken by the Government in two successive sessions. Then, because the legislative programme is hopelessly overloaded, Bills of the first importance, instead of being discussed in detail by the House as a whole, are sent upstairs to standing committees on each of which no more than fifty Members sit. Now, as climax, even those restricted bodies are not to be given time to do their business, for it has been proved abundantly that measures like the Transport and Town and Country Planning Bills cannot be adequately considered, amended and improved within the time-limits which the Government arbitrarily imposes. Monday's was a bad day's work for the House of Commons, and even this Government and its majority may come in time to realise that we are getting very near legislation by the fiat of an arbitrary oligarchy— for the mass of Government supporters is allowed no more influence in these matters than the Opposition.
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