A salutary House of Commons custom was defined—and defied— last
Friday. The last half-hour of sittings of the House (longer if there is time available) is regularly set apart for an adjournment motion at which some Member who has won his opportunity in a ballot raises some particular question of his choice and the Minister concerned replies. Last Friday the subject was the deferment and release of officers, a number of Members taking part and the Parlia- mentary Secretary to the Ministry• of Labour answering them. Then when all seemed over Capt. Blackburn, the Member for King's Norton, rose. So did the Speaker, and the Speaker spoke first. What he said was that the hon. Member could get no reply to the speech he proposed to make, adding, " This House should not be considered a forum for making speeches. It is a House of debate, in which speeches are answered. In my view, it is contrary to the spirit of Parliamentary custom merely to use it as a platform for speech- making." But Capt. Blackburn likes speech-making, and proceeded to address large expanses of red leather dotted with rare and isolated Members for the space of rather over twenty minutes on aspects of foreign trade, explaining that he wanted to be reported in Hansard.
That immortality he has accordingly achieved. * * *
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