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156 
WESTM NS TER HAUL
Page 7
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MUCH more of this and MPs will be expecting danger money. As if it wasn't enough to have metal badges showered on them by an aggrieved Corby steel worker, one of the custodians whose job it is to see that the Palace of Westminser proceeds peacefully was about to be arrested on suspicion of starting fires there.
Not that the establishment was unduly perturbed, on the face of it at least. Such events have nothing to do with the business of Parliament, and are not recorded in the transcript of its proceedings. Indeed, had a couple of MPs not raised the matter of the badges later, no one reading Hansard would have realised that any-. thing untoward had happened during transport questions.
As it was. the exchanges were short and sweet, brought to a good-natured end by the Speaker recalling that on one occasion he had signed for a visitor who had misbehaved.
Who was it? What did he do: Mr Thomas was not saying. During his many years in the House he has learned just how much information to give, how much to withhold.
Mr Fowler, by comparison a new boy, has yet to master this secret of success. Both he and his lieutenant, Mr Clarke, tend to make their answers a shade too long.
Certainly they cover a lot of ground with the topics they do deal with, and rouse little wrath among their opponents, but they do not move on from question to question with the rapidity which once distinguished this unique occasion.
And there is little sense of excitement. Mr Fovvler's announcement about a review of driving offences had all the impact of a motorway sandwich. One can imagine the stirring words someone like Ernest Marples or Barbara Castle would have chosen to break such important news.
As it was, his thunder was almost stolen by the Tory who told of a 21-year-old who had been a member of St John Ambulance since he was nine but had been denied even an interview for a job as an ambulance driver because he had one minor driving offence on his licence.
And it would appear that Mr Fowler's words do not engrave themselves indelibly on everyone's memory.