NO LACK OF ABILITY

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3151, 3 August 1942, Page 3

NO LACK OF ABILITY

PLAIN SPEAKING IN LONDON CRITICISM OF PARLIAMENT “There is no lack of ability in Britain—or, more accurately, though there is a shortage of competence, it is not s'o desperate as the make-up of the Government would indicate. “Where there is a desperate shortage of ability is in the House of Commons, owing to the lamentable policies pursued in the past two decades by both of the major parties in recruiting their personnel. It is surely no accident that none of the Ministers who have 'been recruited from the House of Commons have made a real mark, while those who have proved themselves have come from outside. “The two outstanding successes have been Mr Lyttelton, who was brought in from the city, and Sir John Anderson, who is a Parliamentarian only in the most technical sense. Lord Beaverbrook had. taken no active part at Westminster for many years. Mr Bevin, the best of the Labour Ministers, entered the Cabinet before the House of Commons. Lord Leathers is another example of an able Minister recruited from outside; Lord Woolton may be added to the list.

“But among the politicians, 'Conservative, Labour and Liberal, there is hardly one who is not on the defensive —and whose presence does not put the whole of British democracy on the defensive, when it ought to be on the confident attack.”—The Economist, London.