What Labour Proposes The Labour Party's new programme is evidence
that the Party has no intention of letting itself being run away with by the Socialist League. In view of its dependence on the trade unions that is natural enough. Gradualness is more in evidence than revolution, though some of the nationalization proposals set a pace that can hardly be described as gradual. The programme, little of which is actually new, falls mainly under three heads, international policy, reform of Parliamentary procedure and public ownership and control. As regards the first the Party would accept the fullest implications of the League Covenant and the Kellogg Pact, and embody the national policy dictated by those instruments in a Peace Act of Parliament. This is a project by which Mr. Henderson personally sets great store, and there is some- thing to be said for associating Parliament formally with a concrete interpretation of national obligations. But unless virtual unanimity were assured beforehand the attempt might do more harm than good: The passages on Parliamentary reform are not in the style of Sir Stafford Cripps. The abolition of the House of Lords is mooted, but that Chamber is apparently to be first given a chance of justifying itself by passing Socialistic legislation. Some of the proposals for increasing the efficiency of the House of Commons would be considered by other parties as at any rate worthy of discussion.
