The Week in Parliament Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes : The
Un- employment Bill is through the Commons, and 421 members voted for it on third reading with much better heart than on second reading. It is hardly surprising that the Opposition mustered only 63 votes against it. The Bill, after all, gives the highest rates of benefits and the most generous scales of relief ever granted in this country, and much the highest in the world. The new administrative machinery is experimental. It takes relief out of the hands of local elected authorities, and that is a tremendous constitutional change. It institutes a nation-wide system of training, covering the insured population from the school-leaving age. It has therefore some claim to be regarded as the most ambitious scheme of social reform ever passed by the House of Commons. -The curious thing about the debates upon it is that very few members have made or increased their Parliamentary reputations. The exceptions are. among the Opposition, Mr. Buchanan, whose knowledge of Unemployment Insurance is really impressive and who ought to be pressed to take a prominent part in some branch of the new administrative system ; and among the supporters of the Bill, Mr. James Reid, Miss Hors- brugh, and the two Ministers in charge of the measure.
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