Orders of the Day — Censorship of Plays (Repeal) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 25 March 1949.

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Photo of Mr George Jeger Mr George Jeger , Winchester 12:00, 25 March 1949

I hope that the Home Secretary has been impressed by the arguments on both sides. I feel that he cannot fail to be impressed particularly by the wealth of argument in favour of this Bill. Intellectually and in every other way all the arguments have been on the side of the Bill and in favour of the dissolution of the censorship which at present obtains. The principal objection to the Bill has come from my hon. Friend the Member for West Nottingham (Mr. O'Brien). His main objection appeared to be that there was so small a number of plays banned by the Lord Chamberlain that it really did not matter very much. That sounds like the time-honoured excuse which has been quoted over and over again about an error being a very small one. But it is an error just the same and any kind of ban—a ban upon freedom of speech and freedom of expression—is abhorrent to a great number of us.

To say that while 20,000 plays were licensed only 250 had been banned, or to say, as the hon. and gallant Member for Waterloo (Captain Bullock) said, that out of 1,200 plays only six had been refused a licence, gives us little satisfaction, when we see the quality of some of the 1,200 and are ignorant of what the quality of the six may be. It may well be that some of the six have been plays which compare with Ibsen, Shaw, O'Neill, Congreve, Wycherley or Shakespeare. Until we have seen them it is impossible to commend or condemn the Lord Chamberlain for his action. If the number of plays banned was so small surely the office of the Lord Chamberlain in that particular connection is really redundant and unnecessary, and there might be a little saving of manpower among play-readers if that office were done away with entirely.

I was surprised that my hon. Friend the Member for West Nottingham, who is after all a responsible trade union leader, did not speak on behalf of the trade unions connected with the theatrical industry. They are very strong and large unions. Yet he deliberately dissociated himself from them in his expression of personal opinion. On the other hand, he spoke for the managers, which seems to be a strange form of industrial collaboration, which I much regret to see. I happen to have something to do with theatrical managers and to know that they are not unanimous in the views expressed in the letter which has been sent out to all hon. Members setting out their objections to this Bill. I know for certain that a large number of managers would like to see the censorship of plays completely abolished.

These societies of theatrical managers—seven of them were quoted this morning—exist not for the regulation of plays or the presentation of enlightenment or art on the stage but for the provision of entertainment which will bring in profits. Those societies exist purely for a commercial and not an artistic motive. They have little authority on the artistic side. An examination of some of the entertainments for which they have been responsible in the West End and elsewhere in the last few years would show that their appreciation of art had been very slight. In many cases even their appreciation of what constitutes box office appeal is very slight.

My hon. Friend the Member for West Nottingham referred to the variety stage and commended the practice there as something that might well be followed on what we call the legitimate or straight stage. I am not quite sure that we should like to see that. Those of us who occasionally see a variety performance know that there is quite a lot to make us feel embarrased and even to raise a blush. Vulgarity, grossness and crudity exist in the variety world which according to my hon. Friend has a voluntary censorship. If that is the result of a voluntary censorship there, I am sorry that he should ask why we should not have the same in the theatre if the Lord Chamberlain's office were done away with. I think that voluntary censorship would exist to a much better extent among playwrights and managers when supported by the public and the critics, than under anything of the kind that at present exists. My hon. Friend further said that variety and films have created censorships of their own while the stage has its own censorship under the Lord Chamberlain. The difference is that the stage has not its own censorship; it is imposed upon the stage by an obsolete and illogical Act which is now very much out of date.

To pass from the arguments of my hon. Friend to the position which we should all like to see, I suggest that the best censorship of all is the censorship which public opinion itself imposes, and the censorship of the critics, who are a very enlightened, erudite, reasonable, sensible body of men and women. I have the greatest respect for the dramatic critics of this country. Most of them are well-informed, and they help to keep the public informed as to the merits of the various plays and films presented. The majority of people in this country like to see what the critics have to say before they go to see a show at any time. That is why Monday night is usually a bad night in any theatre; people are waiting to see what the first night will be like, particularly in a repertory show. That criticism is in the hands of enlightened and witty critics like the hon. Member for Wood Green (Mr. Baxter), whose criticism we all respect and whose politics we all deplore. We could only wish that he would stick to dramatic criticism. With such witty and informed critics as the hon. Member, the public have a true guide as to which plays would benefit them and entertain them, which plays are worth going to see and which are worth the expenditure of money and time in visiting.

The standard of criticism has developed not merely among critics, but among the public generally in accordance with the general standards of education. Plays which were palatable a little time ago are unpalatable now, and vice versa, not because of any action taken by the Lord Chamberlain but because general public opinion has become enlightened and more educated. Things become more worthwhile or less worth-while and managements, therefore, either put on plays or refrain from putting them on because they say "It would not go today; the public would not stand for it." We have absurdities today in the way in which some plays are licensed and some are not. If there is to be any standard of censorship at all I should like to see a censorship of literary quality and not of morality or topicality; that is, if there is to be any censorship at all. But we all have different standards and it would be impracticable, just as impracticable as keeping on the present censorship.

If I have any criticism to make against this Bill it is that i is not wide enough. It should go much further than it proposes to go. It might be possible to do something about that at some future date, but I should like to see the question of Sunday entertainments dealt with. We are very hypocritical in that respect in this country. Sunday plays are banned and only by playing them in a club, membership of which may quite easily be obtained can plays be presented on a Sunday. Even when plays are presented on a Sunday alcoholic liquor may not be sold in theatres in which it is normally sold every weekday, in spite of the fact that public houses may be open next door or across the road and the public may go out to get their drink. They may not have it on the premises which are normally licensed.

These things are illogical, but there is much in connection with our entertainment world which is illogical. I am glad to see that in this small Bill there is an attempt to put right some of the obsolete and illogical things which have existed for so long. I would commend the Bill to my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary, who I know is a lover of freedom and of tolerance, in the hope that he will agree that the Government should back this further step towards freedom of expression.