NONE SINCE 1935

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 228, 25 September 1943, Page 7

NONE SINCE 1935

BRITISH ELECTIONS

BALDWIN AND THE LEAGUE

In Britain there has been no general election since 1935, and none is in early prospect. Normally it would have been held in 1940. .

Children who were 13 when Mr. Baldwin was returned to power on a programme of •support for the League of Nations (promptly scuttled) and mild rearmament would be entitled'to a vote now. But before Parliament ceases to prolong its own life, it may be that the electorate will include voters who were 10 or 11 when last went to the polls.

In fact (writes Geoffrey Tebbutt in the Melbourne Herald) none of the party policies—which only 71 per cent of the electorate was sufficiently stirred to vote upon in that foggy November day eight years ago—look real now. Labour wanted the League backed against Italy, but coupled its demand with a campaign against armaments; the Opposition Liberals were distressed by the prospect of "colossal panic expenditure" upon arms. There were 2,000,000 unemployed. Now all the major parties sit together in a National Government; there is a formal, "shadow" opposition to preserve the forms of debate.

Few Party Changes

Not only has there been no general election since 1935, but it is nearly four years since the party truce was applied to by-elections. In the dim days of 1935 Hitler had been only two years in power, Britain had neither guns nor butter (butter at 10d lb was nevertheless a comparative luxury to the margarineeating poor), Mr. Churchill was a troublesome Baldwin-baiting private member, and Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, the Socialist become-the-darling of the duchesses, lost his seat.

One Man, Two Votes

The British electoral method is anomalous and lacking in. uniformity; it would, otherwise, of course, not be British. Here are some ot the chief respects in which it differs from the more logical but not necessarily more satisfying Australian Federal system:—

Voting is neither preferential nor compulsory—the simple first-past-the-post custom prevails (except for University seats). This in 1935 produced the odd result that 11,791,000 pro-Government voters returned 431 members, but 9,992,000 Opposition and Independent voters had a representation of only IS4 in the House. These figures do not give a quite accurate impression, because of tnc large number of Government candidates returned unopposed, but the discrepancy would still be wide. Plural voting survives and loads the ballot in favour of the businessman who is, with his wife, entitled to a vote in respect of business premises as well as a residential vote—if he lives in a different constituency. Theoretically some peop.e are entitled to three votes, but they may not use more than two and not more than one in the same electorate. The husband of a woman owning business premises is entitled to a vote through her business qualification.

Winning To Tjose

'Australia has nobody standing for the principle of winning a seat only to refuse to take it. There were two such in the British election of 1935— the Irish Nationalist candidates for the two-member seat of Fermanagh and Tyrone, in Ulster. Their platform was a pledge not to sit in Parliament and not to take the oath of allegiance. They won, by a slendermajority. Their salaries remain uncollected. It is considered rather less than cricket in British politics to oppose the Speaker, although he is, of course, fair game here. There was a great outcry from the Conservatives, 'the National Labour group and the three varieties of Liberals, when Labour took the field in 1935 against the late Captain Fitzßoy. Nor does the Prime Minister of the day appear in support of individual candidates. He may help them along with an open letter, but he does not speak from their platforms nor plan his campaign with special consideration for doubtful seats. A British Prime Minister would blanch at the thought of the election tours that their Australian opposite numbers undertake, and, being a hardy species, survive. . Britain was late in the field m women's suffrage. Not until. 1918 were women given the right to vote at the age of 30, and not until 1928 did Mr. Baldwin, after hot controversy, introduce legislation to permit them to vote on terms equal with men.

Nevjsrthelss, women candidates find the road to Westminster easier than the road to Canberra. Dame Enid Lyons is the first to be elected to the Federal Parliament, but nine were returned at the last British election.

The House Of Lords As for the Lords, there they are and there they stay—764 of them, with 31 more waiting to come of age. The great majority would be like cats in a strange warehouse if ever they appeared at a debate. The business of their Lordships' house is left to a handful. They are not there by any choice of the electors, and they are not paid, but there are many who could have made their own way in politics had not the accident of birth or ecclesiastical privilege set them upon the red benches. Thus the present Archbishop of Canterbury would have been a pretty useful politician had he not gone in for being an archbishop. House of Commons elections are more urbane affairs than ours. Election parties were a peacetime feature in the restaurants, and the principal results arrived in time for their capitalisation as an added attraction in tne night clubs.