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are serious papers for those who want to know about important happenings everywhere. There are popular
newspapers for those who prefer entertainment to information. There are newspapers whose pages are largely
filled with news of sport and with stories of film stars, or accounts of crime and of law court trials.
The London newspapers that is best known outside Britain is probably The Times. It began in 1785.
The correspondence columns of The Times are interesting and often amusing. Most of the letters are on
serious objects, but from time to time there will be a long correspondence on a subject that is not at all serious,
perhaps on a new fashion of dress, or the bad manners of the younger generation compared with the manners of
thirty years ago.
The Times, of course, does not publish the strip cartoons that are so common in the cheaper and popular
papers. It does, however, publish a cross-word puzzle every day, with clues that are both clever and amusing.
The Sunday papers are not Sunday editions of the daily papers, even if as is sometimes the case, the owners
are the same. Two of them, The Observer and The Sunday Times, have a high standing. The Sunday Times has
no connection with the daily paper called The Times. The Observer, started in 1791, is the oldest Sunday paper
in Britain.
These papers provide, in addition to the news, interesting articles on music, drama, the cinema, newly
published books, and gardening. Many of the best critics write for these two papers.
(From Oxford Progressive English for Adult Learners by Hornby)
Parliamentary chambers
People outside Great Britain believe, that if a man is elected to sit.in Parliament, he ought to have a seat.
Indeed, most Parliaments provide each member not only with seat, but with a reserved seat, often a desk, in
which papers can be kept.
Why, then, when the opportunity came after the war to rebuild the bombed House of Commons did its
members decide that their own Chamber should, like the pre-war Chamber, be too small to provide seats for all
of them?
The new House of Commons has many improvements, including air-conditioning and provision of
microphones. It has, however, seats for about two-thirds of its members. No change has been made in its shape.
It is still oblong, with seats for the Government supporters on the Speaker's right and seats for the Opposition
on his left. There are, facing the Speaker, cross benches for Independent members, those who do not belong to
either of the two great political parties.
If we examine the kind of Chamber favoured in other countries we find that it is in some cases semi-circular.
In most semi-circular Chambers a member who is called upon to speak leaves his seat and goes to a reading-
desk (a tribune or rostrum) placed below the raised seat of the President. Instead of facing and addressing the
chairman, as in the House of Commons, he faces and addresses the whole House.
When a member ends his speech in the House of Commons, other members stand up and face the Speaker.
They try to catch his eye, for the order of speakers is not arranged in advance. The speaker decides who is to
speak next. The member who is named remains standing, and speaks from the place where he has been sitting.
He must address the Speaker, not the House as a whole. The only members who speak from the Clerk's table
are the Government and Opposition Leaders.
Voting is a simple matter when every member has a reserved seat. In the House of Commons members have
to leave their benches and walk into two corridors (called Lobbies). As they pass out they are counted by four
persons – two for each side – and it may take ten or fifteen minutes before the figures are announced.
(From Oxford Progressive English for Adult Learners by Hornby)