All this is excellent, and we congratulate the Parliamentary Committee
of the People's Union for Economy. They have only to persevere on these lines and they will have the whole country with them. The situation is critical. Already the hope of a 950 million Budget seems to have been killed by the latest Estimates. While we are on this subject of forcing economy upon the Government we desire to say something further about " Taxpayer's " articles which were published in the Spectator during the past fortnight. "Taxpayer's" prin- ciples were precisely those of the People's Union—that the Government must not be allowed to say that this or that item of expenditure was " necessary," but that they must be confined to the expenditure of a definite total maximum amount. He developed a scheme, perfectly legal and constitutional in form, for forcing the Government to comply. An organization of economizers was to be formed throughout the constituencies, and members of the organization were to pledge themselves to refuse to vote for any candidate for Parliament who would not commit himself to the rule of a maximum fixed sum for the annual expenditure of the Government.
