ELECTORAL REFORM
1 To the Editor of the Sener.vron.1 Sol. Students of the comic in 1111111811 affairs will welcome., with glee the promise of an Electoral Reform Bill before,. Christmas. The promise suggests that we are about to be deluged with a torrent of muted phrases to the effect that the.. will of the people must prevail. The fact, of course, is that the Labour Party and the Liberal Party are the grandmanut and the grandpapa of Westminster, who regard the British public as an infant still needing to be well smacked and stood in a corner.
On two counts they lind that the child is misbehaving at this ,,,,, mod. There Is its unmistakable yearning for sweepstakes ; and there is its delight in the gift scheines organised by makers of soap, chocolates, cigarettes, 'and so forth.
1Vould any Labour or Liberal leader dare to get up in public and say that the will of the people to indulge in either of these hutment diversions must prevail ? lIe 'would not ; he would be afraid of the busybodies whose knowledge of what they are shouting about is less than their itch to interfere as lustily as they can in what is no concern of theirs.
The attitude could not be sterner if the sweepstake organisers were robbing theBank of England instead of presenting hospitals with much needed revenue ; or if the organisers of the gift schemes were broadcasting dynamite and arsenic instead of little luxuries to thousands of homes.
In such circumstances who will deny that this Labour IDA Liberal talk about letting the will of the people prevail is (if Mr. J. H. Thomas will allow me) just—humbug 2-1 um,
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