BRITISH POLITICS.

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 December 1911, Page 6

BRITISH POLITICS.

THE EFFECTS OF THE INSURANCE BILL.

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LONDON, Dec. 3 A Conference representative of two hundred hospitals carried a resolution that the existing treatment cannot be maintained if the income is dimini died due to the Insurance Bill. Sir Deary BiU'dett estimates that the voluntary hospitals will lose half of their incomes. The newspapers indicate that 'ti c House of Lords will pa. s the Insurance Bill unamended, thus declining Die responsibility of the details. It is expected that they will reject the Naval Pii/e Bill, embracing the Declaration of Loudon on the ground that it is too important a measure to ha rushed through the House of Lords.

U “FRENZIED CAREER.” L Lord Lansdowne, addressing 12-10 | delegates of the Liberal Unionist I Council at Derby, said the Govern--1 mont had embarked upon a frenzied career of revolutionary legislation. Having broken the Constitution they were forcing revolutionary measures through, which the country had not considered and had not approved. Tiiey ,were guilty of a gross and intolerable usurpation of power and had scattered public money lavishly, had multiplied appointments, and had created a bueaucracy more numerous and arrogant than the country had ever known. He i believed the principle of contributory insurance was just and wise, but the 1 Bill alarmed many of the important interests. Lord Lansdowne combatted Home Rule, especially Federal, and ■ said Sir Arthur Birrell has been si.ggesting a federation, ultimately to include the Dominions. It was absurd to think that the great Dominions would come in at the tail of the hunt in a scheme prepared to suit Mr. lieclirond’s dictation. The first duty of the Unionists was to restore the Constitution and continue Mr. Balfour’s Irish 1 policy.

The Liberal weekly The Nation, considers the House of Lords is deprived of its powers of revision of the National Insurance Bill which Parliament Bill reserved to it and will be forced to race through its vast complications in a few hours. This'is an unfair way of working a new constitution.