The house of Industry : a new estate of the realm

II

SECOND CHAMBER WITH A REAL MISSION

REFORM PLAN By S. G. Hopson (The Author and Economist) Reprinted from The Daily Herald, July 22nd, 1930.

The House of Lords has not been slow in showing its hand. It won’t be long before it chances its arm in a struggle with the Government in an attempt to force a Dissolution.

When and on what the crisis will be joined depends on a combination of political and financial factors which cannot yet be foreseen.

It may be the Coal Bill, though the ‘‘ Spread Over ” seems too trivial for the purpose.

During and after the struggle one fact stands out clear: the Parliament Act will go into the melting-pot and the whole question of the existence of the House of Lords will again be raised.

We are drifting towards a constitutional crisis of the first magnitude. I cannot discover that either the Government or the Labour Party has any constructive proposal to meet the situation.

FUNCTIONAL BODY

The average man will probably tell you that the business of the Lords is to revise or retard legislation ; that

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