Visiting the Commons

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 780, 2 July 1954, Page 21

Visiting the Commons

\V HEN the Rt. Hon. Patrick GordonWalker returned to Britain late in 1950 from his tour of the Commonwealth as Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, he gave a talk in the BBC’s Overseas Services in which he described the British system of Parliamentary democracy as one of the secrets of Commonwealth unity. "Eech of us in the Commonwealth," he said, "uses and understands the system whereby power is concentrated in the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. We know how to conduct our political battles in a sovereign chamber under an impartial Speaker: we know the value of His Majesty’s Opposition, as well as His Majesty’s Government. . . I felt, as would any British Member of Parliament, that I would be at once completely at home in any one of the Commons Chambers of the Commonwealth." Mr. Gordon-Walker spoke after seeing Parliament in session in Wellington, Colombo and several Australian States. Now in turn he takes listeners on a visit to the House of Commons. The Mother of Parliaments, a BBC feature, which will be heard from 2YC at 8.0 p.m. on Tuesday, July 6, and later from other National stations, takes the form of a conducted tour of the Commons, Mr. Gordon-Walker describes how Parliament works and interviews important figures on the part they play in the work of government. Among these are Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the House, Mr. Attlee (who speaks as Leader of the Opposition), the Clerk of the House, the Government Chief Whip, several members of Parliament and the Librarian of the House. The programme includes also recordings of traditional events in the Parliamentary day-the Speaker’s Procession, the Division Bell and the ancient cry that marks the close of the day’s work, "Who Goes Home?" /