A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
THE House of Commons reassembles next week, and the public will have the opportunity of observing how far the organised obstruction which disfigured discussion on the Finance Bill before the Easter adjournment is to be made - a permanent feature of debates. If Mr. Bevan and his associates have their way no doubt it will. He is clearly claiming the right to dictate the course of business instead of the Government. The Government should abandon certain Bills uncongenial to the Opposition, 1(:-. declared just before the adjournment. Failing that the Opposition would not surrender any facilities at all either on the Finance Bill or the Supplies and Services Act, in spite of whatever constitutional embarrassments might follow. Both these measures are vital to the life and welfare of the country, and to delay them seriously would cause a variety of difficulties. Mr. Bevan has no fundamental objection to these measures. He simply wants to protract debate on them in order to leave no time for the Steel and Transport Bills, to which he is fanatically opposed. Obstruction can be something of a fine art, and Mr. Geoffrey Bing, who has a fertile legal mind, seems quite ready to lend himself to Mr. Bevan's desires. In the end, of course, the Government is master of the situation, for it has sufficient majority to carry various forms of closure as may be necessary. But to resort to that defensive weapon against wanton obstruction is distasteful, and the tactics pur- sued by the Opposition rebels—not by the official Opposition —can only result in bringing Parliament into disrepute.
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