The proceedings of the Annual Conference of the • Independent
Labour Party, held at Birmingham this week, have made instructive reading. On Monday Mr. Ramsay Macdonald delivered a speech on the relations of the Labour Party and the Government, which a subsequent speaker aptly described as "a metaphysical philosophical disquisition that would have been eminently in place at a meeting of the British Association." The most interesting debate was on the resolution which urged on the Labour Group in the House of Commons, in order to establish the authority of the elected representatives of the people in Parliament as against the overpowering political influence exercised by Ministers, "to declare their intention to force their own issues and to vote steadfastly on the merits of the question brought before them." This line of action, it was contended by some speakers, would break up the idea of Cabinet and single Ministry control, and give some degree of democratic control in the House of Commons. According to this view, collective Cabinet responsibility ought to be abandoned, and it would be possible to shed Minister after Minister until the Cabinet was reorganised from top to bottom without having a General Election.
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