The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-05

cussed at all. This is brought about by
the operation of the timetable un-
officially known as the "guillotine.'
Take the case of the home rule bill,
for instance. At the opening of the ses-
sion the prime minister announced that
so many days of parliamentary time
would be devoted to the discussion of
this measure. This allowance was sub
divided, the announcement being made
that debate would cease on section l
at 5 .. IN. on a certain day, on section
| IL at l a. m. on another date and so on
The object of the ruling oligarchy being
to prevent discussion and, perhaps, mutt
lation of it's bill, debate was strung out
on the opening words of each section
and in many cases, before half a dozen
| lines of the section had been discussed
the guillotine fell. In other words, the
| time limit was reached, a division was
taken, and the automaton members sol
emnly filed through the division lobbies
! and that particular section was passed
| When, a few weeks ago, the Tories
managed, by working a snap" division,
and bringing in a crowd of Concealed
members while the liberals We're off their
guard. to defeat one clause of the bill.
the timetable was knocked out of gear
| The liberals of course, reversed the de-
feat, but ten days had been lost and
the prime minister solemnly brought in a
new timetable in which the debating
time was curtailed by ten days.
| How perfectly this state of affairs is
understood in the country is shown by
! the recent election at Bolton where the
| successful liberal candidate was Tom
| Taylor, a local manufacturer. He made
no campaign in the ordinary sense of
the term, for he admitted frankly that
he could not make a public speech. When
he was declared elected and 1t became
his duty to address his constituents, he
said:
Boys, can't speak. but can vote
and that's all they want at Westmin-
ster.' He made his appearance at West
Minister the next day and he has been
voting steadily ever since.
The recent experience of George Lane
bury shows what happens to member
who displays any Independence Lane
bury is sound liberal, although little
erratic. He represented the London con-
stituency of Bow and Bromley and when
he was making his campaign at the gem
eral election, Lloyd-George the chan
cellor of the exehequer, went down into
the constituency and spoke for him, re-
ferring to him as my friend, Lanebury'
Lanebury is an ardent woman suffragist
and he objected to the attitude of his
party on this question, although he was
sound on most of it's other measures.
He also declared his opposition to the
sitting of debate and the rule of the
caucus, and he determined to test the
feeling of his constituents. He resigned
his seat and ran for reelection. Not
single liberal NJ. p. went down to help
him, and the local liberal organization
advised its members to vote for the Tory
as a lesson to Lanebury and all other
offenders. against party discipline" OF
course, Lanebury was beaten.
ET~t t..e@
in parliament, the standard of ability in
the house of commonssh has declined. Many
Independent men have dropped out of
public life altogether. One of these is
Hlaire Belloc, the novelist, who was
liberal NJ P. for Stafford, and who re-
| signed rather than take orders from the
machine. Since his resignation he has
devoted much time to fighting the eau
Gus system, but without making much
apparent impression on it.
1t is becoming increasingly difficult, too,
for an independent man to get into par
Lament. The reason of this Is that an
election in England is an expensive al
fair and only a wealthy man can un-
dertake a campaign without assistance
from the central office of his party That
assistance is withheld unless the pros
pective candidate is warranted kind and
gentle in harness"
Local men of wealth. as rule, are not
sufficiently broken to reins. and the re-
suit is that the central office sends down
| a candidate who is quite unknown to the
VOTERS, but whose reliability as a voting
machine is warranted. As each party
does the same thing, the voters have no
personal choice and cast their ballots on
strict party lines. Thus an automatic
majority is maintained at Westminster
All this is killing the public interest in
parliament and is also preventing the dis-
covery of new talent Although the pres
ent liberal government has been In power
FOR seven years, it has produced few new
men, The composition of the cabinet Is
practically the same as it was at the be-
ginning. There have been changes of
posts, OF course, but they have simply
whole is the same
On the whole, too, the liberal group OF