M.P.s never drunk on duty—official

Press, 9 April 1981, Page 8

M.P.s never drunk on duty—official

NZPA London A British member of Parliament is never drunk on duty — and that is official. The ruling came yesterday in the Commons from the Speaker (Mr George Thomas) after allegations that members were sometimes tempted by the 12 bars and long opening hours at Westminster to have one too many. Mr Thomas made it clear that being one over the eight was impossible — under parliamentary rules. He reminded members that all his predecessors took his view: “No member of this House is ever too much under the influence of drink.” A Labour backbencher, Arthur Lewis, was so en-

raged at the" “too much drinking” claim made by the teetotal Liberal peer, Lord Avebury (formerly a Liberal member of the Commons, Eric Lubbock), that he raised an emergency point of order to have the matter put right. Lord Avebury had suggested there was “almost perpetual .drunkenness” in the Commons, Mr Lewis protested. Lord Avebury made his charge at a conference in Liverpool on alcohol-related problems. Singling out the two political leaders for comment, Lord Avebury said: Churchill “consumed vast quantities of drink while he occupied the highest office in the land.” He was “paralytically drunk” on many occa-

sions during the Second World War. A Labour Party leader, the late Hugh Gaitskell, after a visit to a Russian collective farm in 1959, was said to have drunk 19 tumblers of vodka then a tumbler of brandy, and had to be carried to his car by (fellow Labour Party members) Denis Healey and David Ennals.” At least one other (unidentified) member of Parliament had drunk himself to death, said Lord Avebury,and there were plenty of examples of political leaders whose drinking habits “must have impaired their intellectual capacity and their judgment.” “It is shocking that the bars are open in the Palace

of Westminster the whole time the House is sitting,” Lord Avebury told the conference. It was “a dreadful example to set to the rest of the population.” In his. protest about Lord Avebury’s remarks yesterday, Mr Lewis told the Speaker: “Knowing that you, sir, like many members of this House — not myself — are teetotal, I think you might yourself be a little offended to think that a member, who was a member of this House, should go to the Lords and make a slighting and wounding attack on a number of M.P.S who are teetotal, and try to assert that there is almost perpetual drunkenness.” To cheers and laughs from

all sides, he told the Speaker: “You and I know that there are a few members who do have a drink occasionally — but never is anyone drunk in this place, because it is against the rules.” “Mr Speaker, who we know is a lifelong total abstainer, would never allow us to break the rules,” Mr Lewis said, almost drowned in laughter. “But seriously, I think it is a bit wrong for the Lords to do a thing like this when we all know it is not true what he is stating,” he added. London tabloid newspapers brought out their top punsters to write headlines on the story. They included: “The tight honorable members” and “The ‘public house’ of Commons.”