We tell in our leading columns the whole lamentable story
of the Government's handling of their Rents Bill and their subsequent defeat. The solution which Mr. MacDonald has found to bring him out of the impasse that resulted on Tuesday, when the Government's Bill had been thrown out and no one seemed to know either the intentions or the desires of the Government, is to take up Mr. E. D. Simon's Bill. This has now passed its second reading. The Government, however, intend to amend it considerably in the Committee stage, and it is still by no means certain that they will carry the House with them. All parties are agreed that some modification of the 1923 Rents Bill is necessary, and we trust that the House will thrash out an appropriate measure and place it on the Statute Book as quickly as possible. But an immense amount of parliamentary time has been wasted on what is, after all, not a measure of the first importance, and for this we must blame the Government.
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