« Provision for a Season Called Spring
1. (i) It shall be lawful everywhere
for citizens to walk on air,
to hang their hats upon the trees
and wander hatless if they please […].(ii) All citizens who choose to ride
on taxi-tops and not inside
and those who do not use their votes
because they’re busy painting boats
and any miscreant who hums
instead of doing dismal sums
whoever does a silly thing
need only answer “‘Tis the Spring”
and this shall be a good defence
in any court with any sense. […]4. (i) There shall be banks of maidenhair
arranged about the Speaker’s chair
and roses white and roses red
shall hang above the Speaker’s head
like some tremendous window-box
the Galleries be gay with phlox
and goldfish, lovely but aloof,
shall swim above the glassy roof.Penalties for Certain Expressions
(ii) The penalty for each offence
shall be elastic but immense.(iii) A pension shall reward the man
who modestly does all he can. »— Extract from a bill drafted in 1936 by Sir Alan Herbert, sitting in Parliament as an Independent Member; from his Parliamentary memoirs Independent Member
