The Week in Parliament
THE report stage of the Finance Bill was concluded on Tuesday night. Clauses 31 and 33 continue to excite apprehensions amongst Unionist members and in the City, which will not be allayed until they have been in operation for some time. It is generally agreed that, having stated his convictions and proposals, the Chancellor of the Exchequer had no option but to stand by them. He has fought the Bill with great courage and rare Parliamentary skill : and although he has made substan- tial concessions, he has not given way on either of the vital principles underlying the clauses. Mr. Dennis Herbert has rightly drawn attention to the " gross misrepresentations " which have been deliberately spread about, for instance, that the Inland Revenue would preVent funds from being applied to reserve. This sort of loose talk has done co' nsiderable harm, in that it has unduly alarmed the business community. Mr. Churchill was greatly assisted in the final stages of the• debate by Mr. Herbert and Mr. Smithers, and correspondingly embarrassed by Mr. Runciman, who, in direct opposition to the remainder of his party, has snarled at Clause 31 in a series of misleading and rather mischievous speeches: Supply days roll by, and it is anticipated that the House will rise before August Bank Holiday. A great weariness has descended upon members of all parties, and holidays are almost the sole topic of discussion. It is impossible to assess the position of the three parties in the country at the present time. If Brixton proved anything, it ivas that the country is tired of politics.
Conservatives are vaguely anxious about the coal industry and agriculture, but have no idea what to do to improve them. Liberals are full -of conflicting ideas, although it looks as if the Lloyd George-Keynes-Kerr- Layton group will ultimately hold the field. If this should prove to be the case a further split in their some- what attenuated ranks would seem to be inevitable. As for-the Labour Party, in the absence of Mr. MacDonald, it continues to be lamentably ineffective as a Parliamentary force. It is possible to detect a certain general swing to the right-since the Leith disaster, and-the Clyde men have been noticeably -inactive.
The Prime Minister will have ample food for reflection
during his trip to Canada. With one solitary exception —the handling of the coal crisis—his administration _ has enjoyed three years of almost unbroken success. It has fulfilled every pledge given in his election address, including the passing of the most comprehensive measure of social reform known to history. It has been supported and sustained by a party which comprises an immense number of diverse views, and is, in fact if not in name, _ a coalition.
Mr. Baldwin must derive considerable satisfaction from the fact that through all these years, in good times and in bad, he has succeeded in holding the party together—few others could have done it. His place in .history,-as the man who defeated the General Strike, is assured. If he can do something to repair the ravages of 1926 in the coal- fields—rendered no less severe by the Eight Hours Act— to put heart into the agricultural industry and to induce a measure of price stability, he may. yet succeed in laying the foundations of the new economic structure ; the task to which, above all others, he once aspired.
WATCHMAN.
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