The house of Industry : a new estate of the realm

AUTOCRACY, TRADITION AND BIAS 71

Cabinet economic powers that are beyond the compass of the House of Commons and equally beyond the moral authority of any conceivable group of five men, however eminent, however supreme. Cannot Sir Oswald and his gallant buccaneers realise the bare truth, that it is not by playing on the same instrument, changing perhaps from allegro to scherzo, that deliverance must come? It is an altogether different instrument that must be called into play. A political instrument for politics; an industrial instrument for economics.

Let us follow the chequered career of the Mosley War Cabinet. At the eighteen points of the eighteen buccaneers’ eighteen swords, five hundred and ninety Members of Parliament meekly agree to the appointment of an Inner Cabinet of five super-men, who shall rove at large without portfolios, over the whole field of industry. These five men are to be vested with wide powers “‘ for a stated period, subject only to the general control of Parliament.’’ The cynic may enquire how large are the ““ wide powers ”’ which at every turn, on every Parliamentary day, are subject to ‘‘ the general control of Parliament.’’ Anyway, it is clear that there is no real break-away from the “‘ nineteenth century Parliamentary machine.’’ The first act of the play is farce, not drama. And the farce will be turned into an extravaganza when the five hundred and ninety other Members of Parliament start defining what they mean by “ general control.”’