A year of prophesyingWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
History
A year of prophesying
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Civilization, Modern -- 20th century; Europe -- History -- 20th century; Great Britain -- History -- 20th century
In Mr. Ramsay MacDonald we have one of the ablest of living public
speakers, a Prime Minister of unparalleled piety and gentility, but
that is insufficient to console the Intelligenzia for their general
disappointment. The more brightly the personality of Mr. Ramsay
MacDonald shines, the less visible are the creative ideas for which
their advanced spirits followed him. Instead of some genuine effort
toward disarmament there has been the most foolish treatment possible
of the business of the five cruisers. There has not even been a gesture
towards the nationalisation of transport, mines, and the production of
staple commodities. At least the Labour Ministers might have availed
themselves of official files and opportunities, to prepare reports,
digest facts and set inquiries afoot that would open a way to future
nationalisation. The Capital Levy has gone behind a screen. There
has been a muddle over housing and a resort to Liberal assistance.
These Labour leaders over whom the Intelligenzia waved its banners of
constructive Socialism and of a world remade, so bravely, turn out to
be for the most part just ordinary politicians abjectly afraid to stop
anything or start anything that may affect votes.
There is the utmost symbolical value in the behaviour of the new Labour
Ministers towards Court affairs. Great Britain is a monarchy and the
Ministers must go to Court, but there was no law and no necessity to
require a Labour representative in a Labour Ministry to dress up in
an expensive and unsuitable livery. The neat blue serge suit in which
such a man would attend a Labour Congress or pay his respects to his
God in church or chapel was surely good enough for a Court visit. A
red tie, perhaps, in suitable cases could have emphasised the note of
Socialism. But no! These men the Intelligenzia worked for and elected
as the representatives of a new age must needs set out at once to beg,
borrow, or steal the uniform of the old. As the newspaper photographs
witness, most of them wear it with little grace or dignity. They have
the self-conscious solemnity of a new local mayor in his robes. As a
rule it matters little what a man wears, but these liveries betrayed
stupendous acquiescences.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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