THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT
BY NEW MEMBER.
rr HE darkness which shrouds the coal situation was • intensified during the week, and the quite legitimate gamble in which the Government has been indulging now seems rather less likely to succeed. It is typical of the way in which the whole business has been handled from the start that at a critical moment when both sides were, or rather should have been, manoeuvring for position, they should each have perpetrated a first-class " gaffe " on the very same day. The folly of the Yorkshire position, they should each have perpetrated a first-class " gaffe " on the very same day. The folly of the Yorkshire owners could only have been excelled by a performance such as Mr. Bromley's. Unionist members are busily engaged in procuring .copies of his article on the T.U.C., which will be read out at meetings all over the country during the week-end. Thus do our opponents slay each other, and save us Unionists from any temporary embarrassments that may occur from time to time.
No one ever supposed that the T.U.C. had displayed anything but crass stupidity and a total lack of judgment.
• Everyone knows that opinion in the council was sharply divided on the main issue of the strike, and that, in the event, the workers were badly let down by leaders who were unworthy of the name. But there is a kind of public loyalty, especially in adversity, which is apparently either despised by, or beyond the capacity of, the Labour movement. It is, nevertheless, one of the few things that have made politics in this country both possible and tolerable. How childish to suppose that loyalty is of no practical value ! To-day it is to be found only in the Unionist Party, and, in the opinion of many shrewd judges, is the factor most responsible for the position that party now holds. Long may it continue. In the meantime the position is causing considerable anxiety to Unionist members, and much sympathy is accorded to the Government which, confronted by the owners on the one . hand and Mr. Cook on the other, has displayed a patience and a moderation that commands respectful admiration.
It is not considered likely that the men will return to work on a large scale for some time to come.
Mr. Wheatley has reappeared, and intervened with sonic effect in the Guardians debate. He is an incorrigible doctrinaire, and seldom correct in his theories, but he can be an interesting debater. Captain Macmillan put the case for the Government from the back benches in a speech of commendable lucidity and brevity, and Sir Kingsley Wood summed up in a manner which left nothing to be desired. He has proved himself to be one of the most efficient Ministers, and his knowledge of his subject is encyclopaedic.
For the rest, the Finance Bill is now within sight of home. On Tuesday night there was a merry argument on the subject of Imperial Preference between Messrs. Churchill, Dalton, Haden Guest, and Wedgwood Benn, which was much appreciated by a fairly large audience. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is at his best in these impromptu debates, and his easy command of language, with a wealth of epithet and image, increases as time goes on. Captain Benn scored well once when he observed that "This is not a clause : it is nothing but a Primrose League manifesto." Thus the days pass, Government stock now falling, now rising, and all the time Parliament Is compelled to stand by and watch the two sets of Impossibilists savaging each other while the country slowly bleeds. The end is not yet in sight.
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