Abstract
RECENT debates in the House of Commons, notably on the War Damage Bill, have amply vindicated the value of our democratic institutions in sustaining and guiding the national effort. Without questioning its confidence in the present Government, the House of Commons shows no signs of abdicating its associated practice of vigilant supervision and the voicing of public opinion; and by its co-operation with the Government as a kind of Council of State, yhile maintaining its vigilant watch over policy and achievement, its sensitive interpretation of public opinion and constructive but searching criticism of administration has gone far to rehabilitate the prestige of Parliament and silence criticism which was rampant in the years immediately before the War. Mr. Pethick-Lawrence claimed with justice that in the War Damage Act debates we see democracy at its best, and Sir Percy Harris added that “the Chancellor has justified, in war-time, the working of the democratic machine. The House of Commons has been for this Bill, a Council of State.” Much the same could have been said of the recent debate on the War, when keen criticism was focused on those questions of production and manpower which have so far restricted severely our policy and our strategy.
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Eqonomic Policy To-Day and To-Morrow. Nature 147, 687–689 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/147687a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/147687a0