Parliament and Party
It would be a mistake to exaggerate the importance of a resolution which appears on the agenda of the Labour Party's Whitsuntide Conference demanding that when Labour is in office decisions of the. Party Conference should bind the Government, for the motion has no more than the authority of a single local Labour Party behind it. But there is no doubt that if the resolution is discussed at all, it will receive considerable support on the floor of the Conference. It must, of course, be resisted resolutely by any Ministers present, with the support, it may be hoped, bf every responsible member of the assembly. For the principle outlined cuts at the very root of Par- liamentary government. We are, it is true, governed mainly by the Cabinet, which frames legislation apd can depend on a Parliamentary majority to carry it through ; but the House of Commons in the last resort is master, and there have been occasions, even in this Parlia- ment, in spite of the Government's vast majority, when Cabinet decisions have had to be modified as a result of the uncompromising expression of the will of the House. That a Conservative Govern- ment should be controlled, not by the elected representatives of the whole people, but by the Conservative Central Association, would be condemned as intolerable by every sane Labour man. And what applies to a Government of one colour applies equally to a Govern- ment of another. External pressure on Parliament by organisations which have themselves to face none of the decisions for which Parliament must take responsibility is always something of a danger. party The open fettering of Parliament by a par conference would be death to democratic government as we know it. It is necessary to be fully warned of that.
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