The Face of English Politics

Extract

When w. s. Gilbert composed this piece of doggerel verse he was scarcely over-simplifying the issue. The Party System had taken its place smoothly within the Victorian Compromise, providing for a change of personalities rather than a change of principles. Not even Mr. Gladstone or Lord Salisbury could go on being Prime Minister for ever, and the mere machinery of government called for a contrast of character as well as a reconsideration of policy. The mimic battles of the great Parliamentary decades responded, adequately enough on the whole, to a dual need—to the human tendencyto differ and the human aspiration to agree. They were the safety valves of our disputes—keeping them, like private jokes, within the family. But when danger threatened, they did not disturb our unanimity.