We cannot believe that the Government, who have the ball
at their feet, will be so foolish as wantonly to provoke an entirely superfluous enmity either by sup- porting a Bill which will at once be labelled as " anti- Labour " or by attempting to introduce some electoral principle into the House of Lords. This would at once be labelled as a challenge to the House of Commons. As a matter of fact the House of Lords has appreciably more power under the Parliament Act than was ever thought possible when that measure was introduced. The right way is to purge and improve the House of Lords while allowing it to remain wholly different in structure and character from the House of Commons. It would then be extremely well equipped to play the part of a delayer in cases of doubtful legislation—particularly if the brake was made a really efficient piece of mechanism by the introduction of the Referendum.. The Bill against the trade union levy, however, is a much more immediate danger than the so-called reform of the House of Lords.
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