THE BRITISH ELECTIONS

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11410, 5 January 1923, Page 8

THE BRITISH ELECTIONS

MINORITY RULE AGAIN. The “Economist,” writing three days after the general election in Britain, considers the results generally advantageous, principally because the Coalition is killed, the added strength cf Labour is due to an accretion of intellectuals, and the country has declared for Free Trade. “But there are some aspects of the election wl ich are not so reassuring,” says the "Economist." "A comparison of the elected members of the various parties with the votes cast in the country gives food for serious thought on the future democratic representation. We extract the following figures (not quite complete) from the "Timea”: — Members Total votes elected. received. Conservative 341 5.377,465 Liberals ,60 2.585.585 National Liberal Z 3 1,510.73* Labour 141 4,102,425 Other parties ... 11 453,653 The main feature that emerges from a study of these figures is that the Conservative Party, with a clear majority of 77 members in Parliamsnt. are in a minority of well over 3,000,000 votes in the country. This anomaly is, of course, due to the split rotes and three and four-cornered elections It liberal and Conservative reunion reduces the political parties to three, the anomaly will become less serious. But in any case, ;t is difficult to see how, under the present electoral system, minority rule is to he avoi led Not the least important problem for the new Parliament to consider is how. hr a change in the electoral svstem, majority rule may be assured •fha problem of removing these present defects in the system of democratic re presentation is one that should not b allowed to drift.”