Empire

Northland Age, Volume 1, Issue 3, 23 October 1931, Page 7

Empire

THE BRITISH ELECTIONS No less than seven separately organised parties are contesting the general election with 1286 candidates, but it is mostly resolving itself into a straight issue between the supporters of the National Government—com-

prising men very often at opposite political poles—and the Labour Party. The Conservatives dominate the Government supporters, and are contesting 517 seats and the Labour Party 514 in the six hundred constituencies. There are the Labour supporters of the Government, a small band of 21, including Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, who is being violently opposed in his old seat by his former supporters. The Liberals are hopelessly divided, though most are prepared to give the Government more or less support. Sir John Simon’s compact group of 40 are prepared to sacrifice what is left of the old Liberal principles to tide over a period of national peril, while at the other extreme is Mr. Lloyd George, excluded by the state of his health from taking an active part in the fight, who clings to his free trade principles, and is actively supporting the Labour party as the lesser, to him, of two evils. He seems to have only a small personal following, and the

120 Liberal candidates who decline to follow Sir John Simon seem to have little in common. As far as Free Trade is concerned they vary between the die-hard free-traders who are not prepared to give up an inch of their Cobden principles, to those who are prepared to support a stiff revenue tariff. Sir Oswald Mosley’s New Party, mostly young men, are prepared to go far in social change, who seem fighting a hopeless battle, have 23 champions in the field, less than the Communists’ 25, who while holding

parliamentary institutions in contempt, hope to return half a dozen members. There are 26 Independents of various kinds, including the freak candidates that enliven every British election.

The Labour Party, while agreeing in a common opposition to the Government headed by their late leader, are showing signs of deep cleavage. The great Trades Unions are mostly supplying the election funds and on the old principle of the paymaster calling the tune, are settling the party’s policy, which seems to be on the old narrow trades union lines. With the shedding of its “intellectuals” to the right and the left wings, the official party is holding on with dogged conservatism to the old Free Trade faith and a policy of resistance to any changes in the present organisation of the social services. The Independent Labour Party group, the most active Socialist element and better judges of the drift of public opinion, are trying to stir up their more stolid comrades to the fact that a party dominated by trades union ideals is out-of-date, but evidently with but little effect. On the other hand, Mr. Snowden, with his usual blunt directness goes right to the heart of the matter : “Some of us, all of whom have a life-time of service in the Labour movement, decided to put the country before party. We also knew that unless we faced the crisis all we had worked for and won in social amelioration would be lost and further advance rendered impossible.” But he is up against the ingrained conservatism of the British working man, who having gained a little, loves to sit down and contemplate it complacently, before he can be stirred to make a fresh advance.