18 OCTOBER 1940, Page 3

Parliamentary Notes

From our Parliamentary Correspondent: The House con- tinues to meet under obvious difficulties and Central Govern- ment is in complete control of the nation, but Parliament is not rising to the seriousness of the moment, because the Government is clearly absorbed and because there is an absence of searching and pointed criticism. The Chancellor of the Exchequer can speak in terms of thousands of millions to an audience of a dozen members. Nevertheless it is right and proper that Parliament should be meeting, that members should be talking over their common problems and that the whole machinery of Government should be working, in spite of air-raids and the more intense bombardment which has of late been resumed.