The Speaker.
Michael Martin, the speaker of the house of commons, has been under personal attack from the Tories and others for some time. We fear that his statement made yesterday before the house may not help him and no doubt his position will be questioned. The Damien Green affair rolls on, we are not convinced it is a serious crisis, we feel the protocol in regard to the arrest of MPs needs to be clarified. We do not believe that this affair is anything more serious than misunderstandings. The Tories and their friends are getting rather excited and hysterical that this is a rerun of the attempt by Charles 1st to arrest the five members in 1642; indeed we find this hysteria extreme. Speaker Martin did the right thing in allowing the house to debate the issue, in that respect he has ben very flexible. There is a sense though he is blaming others when the responsibility is his. MPs should not be above the law and should be subject to to the same laws as everyone else.