204 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

alliance with Labour returns a small group of "Labour and
Co-operative" JVLP.s; in Parliament, these form one party with
Labour.

Labour has not yet had a majority in the Commons, but has
formed two Governments, one in 1924 and another from 1929
to 1931, when it was the largest party in the House. During the
second period the great slump occurred and Labour had to
choose between introducing Socialist remedies at the risk of
t defeat in the House and trying to administer a Capitalist system
in which it did not believe. The latter course was taken and the
resulting difficulties caused the Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay
MacDonald, to resign and form a Coalition with Conservatives,
some Liberals, and a few who followed him from the Labour
Party A These events were taken by some as proof of the need
for a clear Labour majority to introduce Socialism, *by others
as proof of Labour's incompetence. The party suffered heavy
losses in the 1931 Election and in 1935 onty secured 154 seats.

RIGHT AND LEFT.

These two parties face each other as the chief parties of the
Right and Left; that is, of reluctance, and enthusiasm for change,
respectively. It is a feature of Right parties that their members
hold together; as there is no intention of fundamental change
there is less matter for argument, and the Right naturally attracts,
in addition to keen and convinced supporters, those who, taking
life as they find it, do not think very much about politics. The
Left has to make its case for great change and, when it comes to
framing a detailed statement, disagreement arises; further, if the
Right has the addition of the unthinking, the Left draws those
who, for a variety of reasons, are dissatisfied with things as they
are. The Right is therefore liable to suffer from lack of vision,
the Left from an over-abundance of ideas, of very varying
usefulness, not easily arranged into an ordered programme.

To the left of Labour stands the small Communist Party which
secured the return of one Member, Mr. Gallacher, in 1935.