The Political Situation
The Political Situation is an article published in The Weekly Journal (The Hartlepools) on 14 november 1902.
The Political Situation
A correspondent of the Sheffield Daily Telegraph has had an interesting interview at Buxton with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who is spending a golfing holiday at the Peak resort at present. Sir Arthur's views on the general political situation make entertaining reading, as the following indicates:
"Will you stand for Parliament again?"
"If I stand anywhere, it would be for Central Edinburgh again. I should like to have another shot at it, but the issues are all different now. What is the sense, for example, of calling yourself a Unionist, when the Rosebery party are all Unionists, too? From the moment that that large section of the Liberal party confessed that it was all wrong on the Irish question, and renounced the old errors, the whole political situation absolutely changed. How could I, for example, stand as the opponent of one of these neu, when (entirely agree with him on all points? They are all Liberal Unionists now — or there is no meaning in the word."
"Then you expect great political changes?"
"They will take a little time to work out. But surely it is obvious that the Union is a dead issue. That battle has been fought and won. Other fights now await the Liberal party. I foresee a great re-united central party, with a Conservative right wing and a Radical left one. The present situation is too artificial to last."
"Then, if you stood again, what would you stand as?"
"The name of the party is not yet invented,"
said Sir Arthur smiling.
