PARTY GOVERNMENT 20Q

can only come from a Government whose members are agreed
on main principles—that is to say, who belong to one party.
The members of such a Government might be lost in mutual
admiration or encouraged by their majority to enact measures
gratifying to their most extreme supporters, were it not for the
constant criticism of the minority parties. The largest of these is
known as His Majesty's Opposition, and the tide indicates that
Opposition as well as Government has a function in the Con-
stitution. That function is to criticise the Government, to keep it
from sloth and extremism and to put before the people an
alternative policy so that, if they are dissatisfied, they can, without
violent upheaval, change their Government at the next Election.
The Opposition should not oppose every Government proposal,
nor condemn the Government for not performing the impossible;
but, as party differences are based on fundamental disagreement,
there will not be many agreed topics. Since, in Britain, the people
are free to vote the other way next time, there is a powerful check
on merely factious obstruction—the knowledge, in the minds of
the Opposition, that they may soon be the Government, and will
have to justify their criticisms by doing better themselves.
Responsible Opposition, of the kind required in Britain, demands
considerable knowledge of facts and»the Leader of the Opposition
needs to maintain a kind of office, comparable to that of a Cabinet
Minister, though on a smaller scale. In 1937 t^8 mted was
recognised by the- provision of a salary of £2,000 a year. The
Leader of the Opposition does not thereby become a. servant of
the Government, but of the State and the people who compose it.
It might well be argued that this salary should become, like that
of a judge, a Consolidated Fund charge.

The demand for a Government which shall be " above party**,
therefore, is often based on an imperfect understanding of facts.
Sometimes, however, it is more sinister. The party in power may
be unwilling to face criticism, and, relying on the majority in
the country which it has at the moment, may appeal to the people
in such terms as these: "We have a great work to do; let us have