The hon. Member for Rugby (Mr. William Price) said that he was a journalist and I am sure that he was a good one, because his use of the document from which he quoted was very clever. It was a leg-pull and no doubt I could do much the same with a copy of the newly amended Standing Orders of the Parliamentary Labour Party. The instructions from which he quoted are the ideal. In the last war, instructions which seemed dotty at the time were found to be useful when things started falling, such as sticking paper on the glass. As we approached the Cuban crisis, my wife and I consulted the book about tinned foods and so on. That is its purpose for the average citizen.

The hon. Member also pulled the leg of the civil defence by talking about social get-togethers. Such things are a bonus for the organisation, but to use them as a reason for destroying the organisation is wrong. The organisation's strength is that the volunteers have great fun socially but also do a good job—