We cannot help joining in the Liberal and Labour objection
to the proposal that the Parliament Act shall not apply to any change in the status or composition of the Upper House. The plan looks like a definite attempt to reserve a privilege, although the whole purpose of the scheme is really to forswear privileges and make the House of Lords conformable with democratic conditions. It is evident that the Liberal and Labour campaign against the Government's scheme will concentrate on this proposal that any future changes in the Upper House shall be independent of the Parliament Act. We think the Government will be wrong to insist on withholding a vital matter from the conditions which will govern all other legislation. At the same time it must be said that much of the Liberal criticism is distressingly factitious. As Lord Birkenhead pointed out in the House of Lords on Wednesday, the Coalition under Mr. Lloyd George, prepared a scheme of reform exactly like that which Liberals are now denouncing.
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