ENGLISH ELECTORS

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 207, 2 September 1936, Page 6

ENGLISH ELECTORS

TIRED OF PARTY SYSTEM

"I have seen many general elections, and taken some part in them," said Mr. Lloyd George in a speech recently in Nottingham. "I remember the old general elections with their crowded meetings, great excitement,'' posters and leaflets read by the electors and considered by them, and arguments going on in the workshops and the street—everybody taking a lively interest in what was going on. "You had none of that at the last election. That is not merely a significant but a sinister fact, when you come to consider that the life of democracy depends upon every man and woman who has g(»t a vote taking a close and vital interest in the concerns upon which they are going to determine their action. It is not because the issues are not of sufficient moment to arouse interest —they were never more alarming." The party system had ceased to give full expression to the national conscience. Parties were concerned too much with organisation, and were too much inclined to think that if the world was to be saved it must pass through the turnstiles of their party. "There is no doubt at all that the supporters of the National, Government are profoundly disappointed with—l will not say its action, but its inaction," Mr. Lloyd George said. "I never hear a single supporter of the National Government say, 'No one could have done better.' There are many who say, 'They could not have done better.' That is a different tliiiKr.

"On the other hand, Labour has lost a good deal of the kind of apostolic fervour which it had some six or seven years ago. You find in their meetings a lack of that enthusiasm and determination and ebullient hope which alone drives people on. The experience of 1929 to 1931 was to tliem a disillusionment. Their Government did not fulfil high expectations. I will only give one reason. They suffered from what is a growing disease of modern statesmanship—timidity. You can do nothing in business, in peace or war, unless you are prepared to take the necessary risks in order to at'tain your end. They lacked boldness. What is the result? There is nothing of that earnestness, none of that fierce conflict which one witnessed in democracy's earlier and better days."