A CENTRE PARTY AND THE PROBLEM OF REPRESENTATION.
[To THE EDITOR. OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—The suggested formation of a Centre Party brings out in a very striking way the crippling effects of our present electoral methods. Here are a number of electors who are anxiously desirous of taking an active part in the solution of important questions affecting the welfare of their country, but who, being in a minority in nearly every constituency, find that they have no means of obtaining representation in Parliament. Nothing can be more disastrous to a country than that it should be unable to make use of the political ability at its disposal, and the pressing need of a radical change in our methods of electing Members of Parliament can perhaps be best expressed in the terse language of Mr. Asquith :—
" It was," said he during the last General Election, "infinitely to the advantage of the House of Commons, if it was to be a real reflection and mirror of the national mind, that there should be no strain of opinion honestly entertained by any substantial body of the King's subjects which should not find there representation and speech. No student of political development could have supposed that we should always go along in the same old groove, one party on one side, and another party on the other side, without the intermediate ground being occupied, as it was in every other civilised country, by groups and factions having special ideas and interests of their own. If real and genuine and intelligent opinion was more split up than it used to be, and if we could not now classify everybody by the same simple process, we must accept the new conditions and adapt our machinery to them, our party organisation, our representative system, and the whole scheme and form of our government."
What, then, is the character of the change in our representa- tive institutions which the new conditions demand P It must be such a change as will enable all political forces to find fair and adequate expression within the walls of the House of
Commons, and such a result can only be achieved by the adoption of a system of proportional representation. The past year has been noteworthy for the remarkable successes
which have attended the efforts of proportional representa- tion in other countries,—successes which have been the result of the hearty co-operation of members of all political parties. The present movement in France is being actively supported by members of all parties in the Chamber of Deputies, from the Conservatives on the Right to the Unified Socialists on the Left, and the English Society, equally non-party in character, welcomes the assistance of all who are anxious to maintain at the highest possible level the authority and prestige of our House of Commons. The Committee has recently embarked on a more extended educational campaign, including the issue of a monthly journal, and copies of this journal, with pamphlets explanatory of the aims and methods advocated by the Society, will gladly be sent on application.—I am, Sir, &c., JOHN H. HUMPHREYS, Hon. Secretary, The Proportional Representation Society.
107 Algernon Road, Lewisham, S.E.
[As we suggested last week, proportional representation is the natural ally of " Left-Centre" politics. We sincerely hope that all those who are interested in the question of a Centre Party will accept Mr. Humphreys's invitation, and will send for the papers and pamphlets he offers. They will find that proportional representation is not by any means so " faddy " a scheme as it is represented by its opponents, and by the votaries of the cult of the "odd man."—ED. Spectator.]
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