* * * * The Government, the Liberals and Electoral
Reform The Prime Minister has promised the early introduction of an Electoral Reform Bill, but nobody outside the Government yet knows what will be in it. Meanwhile the promise has scarcely eased the relations of the Liberals and the Labour Party. The issue in the Liberal Party is still between Mr. Lloyd George's evident desire to let the Government survive in the hope that something will turn up and that the strength of Liberalism will grow, and Sir John Simon's high moral precept that principles are more than tactics. On Friday, December 5th, Mr. Lloyd George addressed the Liberal candidates at the National Liberal Club. His speech was a strange study in the art of blowing hot and cold. He denounced the Government as utterly inefficient. He had never known a worse. But, then, what was the alternative ? If there was an immediate appeal to the country the Unionists would probably be returned with a mandate for Protection. In these circumstances the duty of the Liberals was to secure that the real voice of the country should be heard.
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