Though on the whole the prospect in the Labour world
is much brighter than it has been for many months, there is no brightness on the political horizon, but very much the reverse. We have dealt elsewhere with the general conditions that affect the Government, but must note here a very significant fact. Some 170 Coalition Members of Parliament, almost all of them Unionist Coalitionists, have bound themselves with an economy pledge which involves opposition to any expenditure not previously authorized in the House of Commons. In all probability most of those pledged consider that the payment to Dr. Addison of a salary of £5,000 a year as a Minister without Portfolio is a matter which will demand an adverse vote from them, and that they may therefore vote against the Govern- ment in a matt* which they (the Government) regard. as a matter of confidence. The importance of the situation is shown by the fact that the Prime Minister wild himself move the adoption of the vote for Dr. Addis' on's salary. Dr. Addison, once a popular figure in the House of Commons, but now any- thing but that, has not made matters better but worse for himself and his chief by insisting that the anti-waste movement, which has taken a practical form in his case, is a cabal of what he calls Conservatives against him. He adds that movements of this kind are clearly for the destruction of the Coalition.
