With the general election just a couple of days away, here is an article on a political theme, taken from the 1963 edition of Ulula. George Benson was Member of Parliament for Chesterfield 1929 – 31 and 1935 – 64:
“When I was invited to write for Ulula it was suggested that I should deal with some of my own activities. Naturally, as a Member of Parliament, much of my life has been devoted to politics. I made an early start, for the first time I stood as a candidate was in the mock election held at M.G.S. in 1906. There were seven candidates: two socialists, of whom I was one, two conservatives and two liberals, and Harry Pankhurst (1906), son of Mrs. Pankhurst, the leader of the Suffragettes. J. L. Paton, the High Master, was the Returning Officer. Posters were allowed, and also meetings in the class rooms. On the day of the election all the candidates addressed the whole School, with J.L.P. as chairman, and then the ballot was taken. I polled thirty-four votes. I happen to remember this figure, for I still have a post card sent me by Keir Hardie, the first Labour Member to enter Parliament, congratulating me on my vote.

In those days a great deal of Labour propaganda was done at outdoor meetings, and I can remember standing on a soap box at the corner of Tib St. and Piccadilly, making my first public speech while I was still at M.G.S. Eventually I arrived at the House of Commons in 1929, as M.P. for Chesterfield. I can remember the ordeal of making my maiden speech. It is a terrifying experience, even to a practised speaker. A maiden speech is never interrupted, for all members remember their own. The next speaker invariably compliments the new member.
Although newspaper reports deal almost exclusively with debates in the Chamber, a very large amount of the work of Parliament is done in Committee. There are various kinds of Committees. Some, called “Standing Committee”, deal with Parliamentary bills during their “Committee” stage, when amendments are moved and the bills are debated in far greater detail than at any other stage of their passage through the House. Other Committees, known as “Select Committees”, are charged with the investigation of various matters. A good example of this type of Committee is the Public Accounts Committee. The function of this Committee is to investigate the expenditure of the previous year, firstly to see whether it has been spent in accordance with the intentions of Parliament, and secondly to see whether the expenditure has been economical and efficient. It consists of fifteen members of Parliament, who normally serve on it for many years. I happen to be the “oldest inhabitant”, for I joined it in 1929, and was Chairman for eight years. It is in many ways a unique committee. There is a very strong tradition which prohibits political bias, and it would be impossible for a stranger to spot what party a member belonged to by his examination of the witnesses. Its function is criticism, and the best that a Government Department can hope for from the P.A.C. is that it is ignored. Its job is to find faults, and if it can’t find any it says nothing.
The investigation of the P.A.C. is very thorough, for it has as its adviser the Comptroller and Auditor General. He has a staff of about seven hundred, who live and work continuously in the Government Departments. They poke their noses into everything. They read the correspondence of the Departments, if necessary, and really ferret around to see what errors or mistakes they can find. At the end of the year all the important material they have collected is embodied in the Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General, and this is the document upon which the P.A.C. bases its examination. It might be thought that the Heads of Departments would not feel kindly disposed to the C. and A.G. and his staff. But one civil servant said to me, “I regard the C. and A.G. as my best friend. My staff know that if they blunder, and the C. and A.G. reports it to P.A.C., I shall have to answer for it. So they are careful not to make blunders.”
My other interest is not even remotely connected with finance. It is Penal Reform. I am a member of the Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, and was for some twenty years its Chairman. I am also a member of the Home Office Advisory Council on the Treatment of Offenders, known for short as A.C.T.O. This is a committee which investigates penal problems submitted to it by the Home Secretary and finally issues a report. As a member of this committee I have opportunity of access to all penal institutions, and I am fairly familiar with most of the prisons in England and some in Scotland. I have also visited continental prisons.
At present the major problem facing the Prison authorities is overcrowding. Many of the prisoners are sleeping three in a cell which was designed to accommodate one person. The great increase in crime since the War, and also the fact that the courts are now passing much longer sentences than they used to, has thrown a great strain on our prison system.
To meet this problem the Commissioners have greatly increased the number of open prisons, sometimes called prisons without bars. Many of these are old Army Camps. They have proved very successful, and we have now a great many. Of course, prisoners sent to these prisons have to be very carefully selected. But despite this additional accommodation there is still much overcrowding.
Some of our large prisons, such as Wandsworth, Parkhurst and Strangeways are at least a hundred years old and are now obsolete; but with the present level of the prison population it is impossible to scrap them. Perhaps my most curious experience while visiting a prison was to be mistaken for a criminal lunatic. This happened in the Scottish prison of Perth. After I had seen the prison the Governor asked me if I would like to see the Criminal Lunatic Asylum, which was in an adjoining building. I said I would, and we went into the exercise yard. Just as we went in an Officer stopped the Governor and I wandered on to the exercise yard to wait for him. All the occupants were in civilian dress, since technically they were not in prison. While I was watching, a little chap came up to me, and said in broad Scots, “This is a magnificent institution.” I said I was glad to hear it, and we chatted a minute or two. I gathered he had been in all the prisons in Scotland and not a few in England. He must have had a pretty long criminal record. Suddenly he said, “Weel; A must awa.” Then tapping me on the chest for emphasis he said, “Mark my words. By the time they have had ye here for six months ye will be as proud of this institution as I am myself.” And then he left me.
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