Getting into Parliament As Mr. Desmond Donnelly said the other
week, Parliament's declining vitality needs drastic curing. If MPs are genuinely anxious to help their public image, one of the things they might do is revise the rules for the public gallery of the Commons. A foreign acquaintance of mine, having tasted the medievalism, announced that he saw no sense in employing three policemen to hand out application forms and keep a quell° of fifteen in order; and the complicated clocking- in system seemed to him somewhat bizarre. But what really riled him was the row when he wanted to jot down what he improbably describes as a bon mot. Two gloomy sidesmen in robes and chains descended on him to stop this gray! offence. A moment later he tried again, and thts time was threatened with removal. He is still at a loss to understand how the silent sliding of a ball- ball-point pen in the public gallery could disturb the handful of Members mumbling away beloW at the Drainage and Sewerage (Scunthorpe) Bill'
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