COST OF A SEAT IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,

Evening Star, Issue 14225, 26 November 1909, Page 7

COST OF A SEAT IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,

In view of the stand taken by Dr Lunn, Liberal. candidate for Boston, Lincolnshire, who has declined “ to give subscriptions to local objects ” in order to ingratiate him self wnii hj 1 s ■constituency, an • article by Mr A. A. Baumann on ‘ Money and* Brains in Politics ’ in the October number of the ‘ Fortnightly Review ’ is of interest. Mr Baumann laments that the field of choice of Conservative candidates is restricted by many considerations. “It is• the annual toll levied upon Conservative members and candidates which so effectively limits the choice ol men. Taking the moan between the cheapest borough and the dearest county, I shall not exaggerate if I put the average annual cost of a seat in Parliament, and consequently of an mttempt to secure one, at £7OO a year. How many men are there who can afford that? There are some Conservative members and candidates who spend a good deal less than £7OO a year, and some who spend more. Take the figure £SOO as the mean, and it is a toll beyond the capacity of all but a very few. The blame for this state of things does not lie with tho Central Office or the Chief Whip, whose business it is to supply the article demanded by the constituencies, or rather by the small groups of active politicians in the constituencies, who invite and select candidates. There is a certain county, not a hundred miles from, London, where all the divisions (leaving the last election out of the reckoning) are per-

fectly safe Conservative seats. In none of them-will the Conservative Association even consider the name of a candidate who will not pledge himself to spend £I,OOO a year. The plain and painful truth is that at the door of the Conservative Association in by far the larger number of constituencies there stands a knot of men with outstretched hands, crying: ‘lt’s your money we want.’ Whenever a hew man appears in Conservative circles, the first question asked is not ‘ What has he clone, or written, or said?’ but ‘What is his income?’”