Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 1931. POWER & RESPONSIBILITY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 15 August 1931, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 1931. POWER & RESPONSIBILITY.

After tli e British general election in 1923, the Conservatives, although the largest individual party, were in a minority in the House, and the balance of power was held by the Liberals, the smallest party, who kept Labour in office for a year. The election of 1929 also gave the Liberals, who only succeeded in winning 59 seats, the balance of power once again. They, too, have kept Mr MacDonald in office, although the results of the by-elections suggest that the country, thoroughly tired of the policy t of drift pursued by his Government, and exasperated by its failure to tackle the unemployment problem, would welcome a new set of rulers. It is an anomaly that the Administration should be dominated by a party which holds less than one-tenth of

the seats in the House; a condition foreign to the underlying principle of Parliamentary government, which is that power should always he associated with, and never divorced from, responsibility. A Government has to stand or fall by its record. It is elected to give effect to a given policy, and should it forfeit the confidence of the House it has to make room for another, or appeal to the country. It is bound to be embarrassed if it is subjected to pressure by a group which, unable to achieve its aims directly, seeks to do so by pointing a pistol at the other’s head. This is minority rule, and is antipathetic to the spirit of democracy. In such a situation bargaining and unedifving compromises are inevitable. Of course, the threatened Government, rather than exist on sufferance and submit to coercion, might resign. But the Opposition would be equally impotent, and the King’s government must be carried on. To wish to grasp the reins of office, with its attendant liabilities, is a legitimate aspiration. Deliberately to cherish the ambition of attaining to a strategical position in which a minority will be able to dictate the policy of the country is scarcely playing the game. When a Government can only survive by grace of a third party, which may withdraw its support at any moment, and for any reason or none, stability vanishes. The intentions of those in whose hands is the balance of power may be excellent, but it lends itself to abuse, and the atmosphere of political uncertainty and suspense that is engendered has unfavourable reactions throughout the community.