COMMENT IN BRITAIN

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 127, 3 June 1929, Page 9

COMMENT IN BRITAIN

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY

HEALTHIER POLITICS

Australian Press Association.

■ LONDON, 2nd June. Mr. J. L. Garvln, editor of the "Observer," who has long warned the Government that it was alienating Liberal support, from which it secured the huge majority of 1924, now declares: "The great party has been plunged to ruin in the name of 'safety first.' It is useless to blame any particular Minister. The whole atmosphere of the Cabinet was to blame. It was a Cabinet of complacency. Never did a Cabinet more admire itself. It contained the unusual proportion of men not visibly inspired. Mr. Baldwin ignored entreaties to reconstruct it." The "Daily News" says: "The new Parliament will be very different from the old, and in almost every respect far better. We differ in certain respects trom the Labour policy, just as we reject some nostrums of Conservatism, but broadly the result of the election will make for healthier and more honest politics. It will end the sordid intrigues to impose- protection under an alias, and will mean the adoption of a more energetic peace policy. It will make impossible the cruel, indolent apathy with which the misery of the unemployed has been for years regarded by .the Government. The new Parliament may not be perfect, but it will be a truer reflection of the country s real opinion than the old." NO NEED FOR DISMAY. The "Daily Express" says- "The Conservatives need not view the future with dismay. This eclipse was inevitable from the moment the party decided to ngnt«on the consciousness of virtue and the slogan 'Safety first.'The psychology of the Conservatives has been distorted by a cumbersome majority Their attitude has become pontifical ihey could do no wrong. They called friends who urged them to wake up heretics. The enormous total of the Conservative poll, in spite of the blunders in tactics, proves how easily the trovernment could have swept the country if a bold policy had been adopted " The "Daily Telegraph" saysf "No constitutional crisis should be allowedto arise while the King is suffering indisposition, but nothng in the nature of a crisis has yet arisen. Mr Baldwin's Government is still in being. Even if he had considered the possibility of resigning before the meeting of Parliament the arguments for such action wouia hardly bear examination. We shall hope to see Mr. Baldwin boldy reconstruct his administration and meet the new House of Commons not weakly extending his neck to the sword of the executioner, but with a programme of useful, non-controversial legislation, prepared to carry on the .king a Government and throwing upon the two oppositions the responsibility for putting the Ministry out. The verdict of the country is one every loyal Conservative must deplore."