British By-Elections in War-Time

“The cardinal factors of British democracy,” writes W. I. Jennings in The British Constitution, “are that the character of the British government depends essentially on the results of the last general election, that there must be a general election at least once every five years … and that the electors have a choice exercised freely and secretly between rival candidates advocating rival policies.” For more than two years the British government has had to meet the challenge of a war crisis which threatens the very existence of British democracy. And war, it is commonolace to say, changes everything. The mandate, whatever it was, of the last general election was given in 1935, in days which, though they may still be dear to some, are certainly dead days beyond recall. Like the Parliament of 1911, the present Parliament has had its life prolonged beyond the maximum of five years. There have been no by-elections, with major rival candidates advocating rival policies; for, soon after the declaration of war, the chief whips of the three major political parties in the House of Commons signed an agreement providing for an electoral truce covering by-elections.