Democracy; Great Britain -- Politics and government
The member who would succeed in the House of Commons must respect the
usages of the House, and show himself loyal to its laws of debate. As long
as this respect and loyalty are shown the Labour member is accepted by his
fellow-members as one who has been elected to the greatest club in the
world, and is justly entitled to all the privileges of membership. For the
British House of Commons is a democratic assembly, and in its collective
pride it cares nothing for the opinions or social rank of its members. All
it asks is that the newly-elected member should be alive to the honour of
membership, should be modest in his bearing, and should as soon as possible
"catch the tone of the House." He may be a labourer, or the son of a belted
earl; the House is indifferent so long as his parliamentary manners are
good.
The House of Commons is a far more orderly assembly than it was a hundred
years ago; it is more sober and less noisy, and the arrival of Labour
members has increased rather than diminished its good behaviour. It is also
a far more industrious assembly, and the influence of the Labour party
compels an amount of legislation that honourable members would have thought
impossible fifty years ago.
WORKING-CLASS LEADERS IN PARLIAMENT
Three representative working-class leaders in the House of Commons stand
out pre-eminently in contemporary politics--the Right Hon. John Burns, Mr.
J. Keir Hardie, and Mr. J. Ramsay MacDonald. The Right Hon. D. Lloyd George
is conspicuous rather as the representative of the industrious
Nonconformist middle class, but the success of his career is no less
significant of the advance of democracy. The very Cabinet is now no longer
an aristocratic committee, and the highest offices of executive government
are held by men who are neither wealthy nor of distinguished family.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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