POLITICAL PENDULUM.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16485, 26 February 1914, Page 4

POLITICAL PENDULUM.

TO THB BDITO*. Sir The verv interesting article which Mr Buttefworth has contributed to your paper shows that he has not made an altogether impartial or correct survey of current British politics. In discussing the portent of recent byelections he would have your readers believe that the prostige of the Asquith Administration has suffered a severe blow by the result of the Bethnal Green by-election. That the defeat ot a Cabinot Minister is of serious concern to the Government is undoubted. Jiut the defeat of Mr Masterman at Bethnal Green was due to the unpopularity of the Insurance Act, and not to the general policy of the Government. The Act in question presses hardly on casual and other classes of workers, and it was this grievance, and the increase of the Socialist vote at the expense of Mr Masterman, -that secured the seat for the Tory candidate, Major M. H. Wilson. , , '" .. As to the result of the by-election for South Bucks, which seems to have afforded Mr Butterworth keen satisfaction, it was almost a foregone conclusion that it would return a Conservative. This constituency has been held by the Conservatives since the last redistribution of seats in 1885, with the exception of a short break from 1906 to 1910, and the fact that the Liberal was able to reduce the' Conservative majority by 225, must bo regarded with some satisfaction when it is remembered that the constituency contains 2900 plural voters. It will perhaps have been observed that the majority of the Conservative candidate was less by some 600 than the number of plural voters in the Division. This constituency should come into the rightful hands of the bona fide residential electors if Mr Asquith can remain in office till April or May of next year, by which time the Bill for the abolition of plural voting will have become law under the Parliament Act. The Bill, if it receives the Royal assent, will abolish 555,000 plural votes which had always given the Conservative party such a strong electoral advantage. ■-•<•• It is expected that with the abolition of plural voting the Liberals will gain about 60 or 70 seats at the next general election. It is this Plural Voting Bill and the keen desire to smash the Parliament Act that the Conservatives are putting forward the case of Ulster for all they are worth to harass the Government, and indulging in all kinds of tactics to force an appeal to the country before the important legislative proposals of the Government are able to receive the benefit of the Parliament Act. That the Government is not so unpopular in the country as is claimed by its opponents is shown by the results of the sixty-two contested by-elections which have taken place since the general election of December, 1910. The figures which exe'ude the contests for Cambridge University and Shrewsbury for which the Liberals did not have a candidate, and for East Bristol, in which the Unionists had no candidate, show the Liberal and Labour vote to be 379,900 and the Conservative 325,200. giving a Liberal-Labour majority of 54,700. The Labour and Socialist vote by iteelf is ■58,084. If a Preferential Voting Bill could be passed during the life of the present Parliament, which unfortunately could not be done, as the Ministerial programme is already overburdened, the Liberals could look forward with considerable hopefulness to the result of the next general election. But if the Government can weather the political storm for another eighteen months, with the abolition of the plural voter and not have too many three-cornered contests, they should be able to secure a fair working majority at the next election, and with such to continue their policy of constitutional, land and social reform. — -I am, etc., F. M.