LEADER OF A PARTY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19311, 24 October 1924, Page 8

LEADER OF A PARTY.

SOCIAL LIFE OF A PRIME MINISTER,

A pleasant little controversy on the social side of politics is suggested by the charge being brought against Mr Ramsay MacDonald, the present British Prime Minister, in some quarters of magnifying the social aspect of his position, of being too ready to make orations at public dinners, and of sometimes giving up to society time which might be better spent in the House of Commons (declares a correspondent of the Manchester Guardian). At the outset it must be determined whether we are' to regard a Labour Premier as a man set apart. Are we to say that rules which hold good for Premiers from other parties do not apply to a Labour Premier? There are those of his own party who hold that belief, but it will hardly bear examination ; a Prime Minister is something more than the leader of a party. If we assume, then, that Mr Ramsay MacDonald is governed generally by the rules that apply to nis office, it comes to bo noted that Prime Ministers generally have been diners-out. Public dinners were less frequent in the old days than now, but both Gladstone and Disraeli dined out often, and talked (especially Gladstone) brilliantly, though it should h« added that neither of them took House of Commons duties quite as lightly as Mr MacDonald, who might be described as a follower of Arthur Balfour in. that respect. Campbell-Bannerman was onother “social’’ Prime Minister, and so were both Mr Asquith and Mr Lloyd George, while Mr Baldwin, in his short term, spoke at a good many public dinners. Is it not generally true that we do like to hear our Prime Ministers speaking at Academy banquets, at city banquets, at Imperial banquets, at. dinners of learned societies, and so forth? We like our Premiers to bo "universal men.” Wc think none tho worse of Mr MacDonald when ho gets away from politics and confesses himself a devotee of “colour.” Wo liked Baldwin on Worcestershire cricket,. Lloyd George presiding at musical festivals, Balfour talking philosophy (even if we did not understand him), Asquith the Balliol scholar, and so forth.