The Uncertain Trumpet: political confusion in early November 1922

Abstract

Most general elections in recent years have been contests between two parties for control of the commons, and they have been conducted along fairly clear lines established prior to the campaigns themselves. The psephological interest in these elections has concerned the question of which party would win, and it has been assumed that someone would win. It has also been a foregone conclusion that no election would make a fundamenatl difference to the political structure of the country, and that the parties would be the same ones after the election as before it. In 1922 there was a race, but nobody knew precisely which parties were opposing each other, as the party alliances varied from place to place. As the Manchester Guardian said, ‘never perhaps has a general election been held where the issues were less clear and the electors received less guidance.’ J. L. Garvin, editor of the Observer, said he would be ‘surprised at nothing; anything may happen’, and The Nation described the campaign as ‘a state of confusion unknown in any former election. The old party lines are gone’.¹

For if the trumpet give forth an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?

I Corinthians, xiv 8