BRITISH POLITICS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3784, 4 February 1908, Page 3

BRITISH POLITICS.

London, January 31

An amendment was moved in the- House of Commons, by Mr J. Ramsay MacDonald, LabourSocialist, member for< Leicester, to the Address-in-Reply, regretting the absence from . the . King’s Speech of any promise to deal legislatively with : the unemployed question. The motion was negatived by 195 votes 146’ The minority included all the Labour members and Nationalists, and a few Unionist Liberals. Many Liberals , abstained from voting. Several newspapers state that many Unionists voted with he minority. Mr John Burns, President of the Local Government Board, in attacking the motion, said some, of the aims of Socialism were Utopian. Incidentally he mentioned that Mr Asquith’s Old Age Pensions Bill would provide for millions of people. Mr MacDonald, interviewed on the result of the division, said it wouldi encourage the Labour party to; proceed .with-an Unemployed sin. ■ v -' ; Constitution of the Minority, London, February 1. The minority in favour of Mr MacDonald’s motion included 40 Labourites, 25 Liberals, 56 Nationalists and Socialists, and 24 Unionists.