The Week in Parliament
MISS BONDFIELD'S speech in moving the second reading of the Unemployment Insurance Bill did not come up to expectations. It was long, it was dull, it was unenthusiastic. There were few signs of approval on the Ministerial benches. Major Elliot moved the rejection of the Bill on behalf of the official Opposition. He, too, was long—and diffuse. But he possesses, perhaps, the most interesting mind in politics to-day, and the House, which is more susceptible to intelligence than its pre- decessor, listened to him with great attention. There is no future that might not be predicted for Major Elliot, who is one of the few men in any party intellectually capable of evolving a policy to meet the requirements of the modern industrial era. He has made great Parlia- mentary strides during the past few weeks. But he has yet to acquire form, and lucidity, in his speeches.
The thoughts come crashing out in such profusion that they get jumbled up together and tied up with the words, so that the resultant flow too frequently ends in inco- herence. So few contemporary politicians have any thoughts about anything, that even if Major Elliot fails adequately to check and systematize his public observa- tions, it is safe to predict for him a commanding political future, and possible leadership. Mr. Lloyd George, who followed, was brilliant. He has in this Parliament delivered a series of matchless speeches, which appear to have made no impression whatsoever in the country.
However, they are making a deepening impression on the Government front bench, which is perhaps more important. Every time he upbraids Ministers for their inadequacy and incompetence and offers them assistance in carrying out schemes of his own design, they become more visibly uneasy and despondent.
On this occasion Mr. George sounded a definite warning : " You really cannot go on much longer unless you do something more to deal with the unemployed . - You cannot expect the House of Commons to tolerate it, and I cannot understand why hon. members opposite tolerate it ! " This had been preceded by a eulogy of those foreign constitutions which enabled Governments to be dismissed from office without the necessity for dissolution (" pulling out the plug and sinking the whole boat.") And there, for the moment the matter rests. The debate on the second reading was continued on Monday, when Mr. Oliver Stanley led off with a speech of immense `distinction and Charm. Aided rather than distracted by a cough, and a series of glasses of water profferred from every direction, he warmed to his theme, and the con- cluding passages impressed an interested and sympathetic audience. The debate was further remarkable for a maiden speech of rugged power from Mr. W. S. Morrison, a cogent piece of argument from Mr. Ormsby Gore who wound up for the Opposition, and Mr. Tom Shaw, who reached heights of mingled fatuity and fantasy which even he has not hitherto achieved.
I hear on good authority that we are likely to sit right up to Christmas day, and be recalled early in January. The present state of Government business certainly lends colour to this sombre prediction.
WATCHMAN.
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