23.8.24 The other day I was discussing the political outlook in Great Britain with a very close and shrewd observer of political motives. I live very much in a dream of a saner world and he lives in active reaction to the passing hour, but we both knew most of the leading figures in public affairs and we were surveying the present extraordinary fragmentation of parties in Parliament--for even the Labour Party now is hardly on speaking terms with itself and has nothing but office to hold it together. His thoughts ran much more on personalities than mine did. Was Mr. Asquith played out? Would Lloyd George “come back”? What was the future of Lord Birkenhead? Would Mr. Baldwin ever be brighter and better? Was Mr. Masterman the resuscitated hope of the Liberal Party? Was there anyone of any promise at all in the Labour Party? And so on. Unlike my friend, I do not go about culling incompatible posies of politicians. I have no interest in gathering together a marketable bunch. The failure of party government, the dissolution of all British parties, cheers and pleases me. Great Britain, I said, would have to lead the way to a new stage of democratic government and get itself a Legislature of a more manageable size, elected by Proportional Representation. “They won’t,” said my friend, meaning by “they” our bright-eyed millions of voters. “They can’t grasp ideas like that--new, _difficult_ ideas. It takes ten minutes’ attention to understand Proportional Representation. You can’t go to the country with a thing like that.” “But unless we get a more efficient Legislature, how can we tackle our difficulties with money, with Europe, with India?” “We don’t tackle difficulties,” said my friend; “Parliaments can’t.” “Most of the Labour Party promised to support Proportional Representation at the last election.” “And ran away from it. There was a tuppenny-ha’penny advantage in cheating on that, so of course they cheated. They’ll run away from everything except office. They’re just a lot of poor things who’ve spent too much money on Court clothes and in dressing up their wives and daughters fit and proper for the Garden Parties, and they want to get the wear out of it all before they go back into the shadows. Nobody in Parliament who isn’t conspicuous is going to let Parliament be altered so that it excludes second-rate people. It’s against nature. You might as soon expect Congress to scrap the American Constitution. You’ll never live to see a General Election in England or America that isn’t fought on thoroughly silly lines--on the old electoral method.” “But think of the tasks that lie before the world!” “What’s the good of thinking of them?” asked my friend. “It only worries you.”