Wairarapa Daily Times ESTABLISHED 50 YEARS. SATURDAY, MAY 2, 1925. BRITISH POLITICS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 2 May 1925, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times ESTABLISHED 50 YEARS. SATURDAY, MAY 2, 1925. BRITISH POLITICS.

Recently two visitors to Australia from England, each of whom is actively interested in politics, the one as an aspirant, the other as a former member of Parliament, have given their views regarding future political developments in Britain. Their diagnoses differ radically. Mr. Malcolm MacDonald thinks that the issue vvill .be between the Conservatives and Labour. The Conserva; tive Government will live the full term, and will win the next election, but within eight years Labour should have its second innings, which will last considerably longer than the first. The Liberals, Mr. MacDonald believes, are a spent force. The Liberal Party may remain as a small faction, but it is steadily slipping out of public life. Dr. Chappie (formerly of Wellington) on the other hand, considers that a better fate is in store for the Liberals. He admits that at present they are, for a variety of reasons (one of which is an inequitable electoral system) under a cloud. But he is confident that their turn will come again. Many Liberals who last November voted for the Coriservatives or for Labour will, disil-

lusioucd and repentant, revert to their old allegiance. The Liberals will grow in strength until they are in a position once more to exercise a powerful, nay, a decisive, influence upon the, destinies of Britain. In a word, the one predicts that Britain will be faithful to the twoparty tradition; the other, that the three-party system has come to stay. Of course, no one, least of all the Conservatives themselves, imagines that the sceptre which they wield is in perpetuity. (English parliamentary ,histroy forbids such a supposition. It is one of alternations. Inexorably, the pendulum swings, and, the longer a party has enjoyed office, the longer, as a rule, is it doomed to be “out on the heather.” Very seldom, indeed, has a Government retained power for more than a decade. The longer it survives the more opportunities has it for making enemies, and the heavier are the rods it prepares for its own chastisement. Further, the path which ML Baldwin's Government has to tread is beset with pitfalls. There will be, let us hope, no extraneous issue to distract attention. The party will be judged on its domestic record. The problems it has to face are extraordinarily complicated and perplexing. Unemployment, the restoration of industry and of exports,Rousing —its treatment by the electorate will depend upon the manner in which it handles these matters. Meanwhile Labour will be sedulously improving its equipment. Although in opposition, it will all the time be gaining valuable experience. The party will acquire a better knowledge of parliamentary procedure and tactics. It will learn to appreciate the importance of discipline. Some of its members may become imbued with a respect for parliamentary annuities and decorum for which they have not hitherto been conspicuous, and the absence of which has antagonised opinion. As the years go by the memory of the-vari-ous “indiscretions” of Labour in office will be, to a great extent effaced. The past will bury its dead. The Zinovieff letter, the Campbell incident, will no longer furnish Labour’s opponents with effective battle cries.