It is a pleasure to turn from the proceedings in
the House of Commons to the national Conference of Labour and trade union organizations which considered the Blanesburgh Report on Thursday, April 28th. This Report, which deals with unemployment insurance, was unanimous, but as it recommends the reduction of benefits in certain cases the Labour members on the Committee—Miss Bondfield, Mr. Frank Hodges and Mr. Holmes—have ever since been subjected to calumny. The National Joint Council (representing the Trades Union Congress, the Labour Party and the Parliamentary Party) which considered the Report in detail came to the conclusion, however, that the proposals for a per- manent insurance scheme were largely acceptable and that though the reduction of benefits for young persons was to be deplored the best course would be for•Labour to move amendments when the reductions were embodied in a Government Bill.
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