A Free General Election ?
It is difficult to resist one at least of the conclusions which Sir William Beveridge reached when he was discussing a general election at the Manchester Reform Club last week. He said that when a general election comes it must be a free election, without coupons, and that means there must be a party election. Anything else would mean a managed election, under which the balance of forces in the present House of Commons would be repeated, or at least gain an undue advantage, in the next. One of the grounds on which Mr. Churchill has rejected immediate controversial legis- lation has been that such legislation should not be undertaken without a general election. But how would a general election affect such issues if the elections were managed through coalition .coupons? One of the main purposes of a general election is surely to give a mandate from the electorate on those reconstruction issues which could not be settled in advance because they were held to be " controversial." Therefore Sir William was surely right when he said that the next general election must be free, and that it must be a party e'ection. But it does not follow, as he recognised, that the consequence would be a party Government—though he seemed to favour that issue ; he admitted there might be a case for joint action on an agreed programme. The present position is that we have a Government and a House of Commons agreed about the war but not agreed about reconstruction, and in the sphere of reconstruction the Conservative majority always has the last word. In a post-war Parliament, assuming a coalition Government follow- ing a free election, we might have a Government and a House of Commons agreed about national security and international politics, but disagreed on many domestic issues ; in which case the last word would be said by the party which had won a majority, and that would -not necessarily be the Conservative Party.. The example of Sweden suggests that even with a National Government in office a free general election might be held on party lines, though the party truce would presumably have to be maintained in the constituencies of Cabinet Ministers. The main thing to insist upon is that the elections will serve no useful purpose at all unless real issues are submitted to the electors, with all parties stating their cases.
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