DISORDERLY CONDUCT

Evening Star, Issue 18668, 24 June 1924, Page 6

DISORDERLY CONDUCT

HOUSE OF COMMONS HI SC lI’Ll NT

Mr Speaker’s announcement of his <le-j'-rminalion to restore and maintain the discipline of (lie House of Commons docs not, come too soon, though it would he exceedingly unfair to J,ho present House (o assume that it is unique in the history of Parliament in respect of disorderly interruption, writes a, correspondent of the ‘ Manchester Guardian.’ There are always people ready to assert that the democratising of onr institutions produces a steady decline in public manners; hid. we have plenty of evidence to rebut any smell accusation in Hie matter of the .House of Commons. The (ruth ■moms to be that in every eentiiry there :-,r-■ some Parliaments in which discipline

is slacker than in olhers; but there is certainly no progressive decline in good manners. A notable- Fallier of Hie House, dir John Mowbray, used to sav (hat there

was. he 1 bought, '■‘more rock-crowing, ■nore trouble generally, in the ’thirties Hum there has ever been since.” It, is certain that political and social observers Hiowebl the Parliaments of (be ’thirties detestable in the point of manners; statements to that, effect may be found in Orevillc- and elsewhere, and these complaints of disorderly conduct, gross misbehaviour,

end so on. suggest- Uu; real explanation of She recurrent. failure of that sense of discipline which rests, after all on the good-will of the House itself. II seems 'eeriain that periods of disorderliness coincide nearly always with •inv departures in political life. The first Reform -Act was followed by disorderly wriofls, the corning of the Irish Nationalists as a definite party produced another neriod of disorder, the further widening -if the franchise Iris had the same effect. Nearly always this disorderliness is due In the influx of a number of members •ml, well acquainted with the traditions of the House. Speakers and Chairmen of Committees make allowances, other members demand the same lenience, and so disorder increases till it- reaches a point .demanding stern action. Discipline is restored, members of all parlies discover that debates are more -pleasant when conducted in orderly fashion, and a period of decorum sets in, continuing, very likely, for many years.