A PEOPLE'S HANSARD
Stse,—I would strongly favour Mr. Roger N. Witton's suggestion for a People's Hansard to be available on the bookstalls. I believe that Hendon, from whence his letter comes, is one of the few Public Authorities to make copies available in their public libraries of the issue in its present form. I have often been influenced on reading the verbatim reports of Parliamentary proceedings by impressions totally contrary to those con- veyed by the partial reports which the newspapers choose to give us. I write the word " partial " advisedly!
The proletariat have a right to the fullest measure of knowledge of what their representatives are doing, and might well somewhat doubtfully rub their incipient whiskers were they privileged to read the verbatim account of an incident which occurred in the Mother of Parliaments on February loth.
Mr. Pickthorn, the senior Member for Cambridge University, was engaged in pleading for some limitation to the powers conferred by the necessary, but obnoxious, Regulation t8 B, when one of our legislators shouted out, " Get away, you dirty monkey! " and another, "Ignorant upstart! " Possibly it might have a salutary effect if these gentlemen, who unfortunately will have a direct voice in shaping the future destinies of this country, were to be aware that every word they utter would be on the bookstalls and in every public library.
I believe in government by the people, but not in government by the crowd, and if it is becoming impossible to differentiate between them, then Democracy will prove itself to be a bane rather than a blessing.—
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