Word: power
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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First off, no one knew, last week, exactly on what day or in what week or even during which month the British General Parliamentary Election would be held. As leader of the party in power (Conservative), placid Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin could and would send all Great Britain scrambling to the ballot box at whatever time his advisers deemed least favorable to the rival parties (Laborite & Liberal). He might spring a "surprise election" in early May, or dawdle along until late June. So long as docile Britons are called to cast their ballots within the legal period of five years...
Secondly, it might seem impossible to devise a satisfactory way of betting on the British General Election as a whole, because the result may leave any one of the three parties or any two of them in power. Theoretically, should a roughly equal number of seats be won by each of the three parties, then after the election there might be formed any one of three different coalitions-Conservative-Liberal, Liberal-Laborite, or Conservative-Laborite-to carry on the Government. The King-Emperor would be obliged (by custom) to bestow the supreme political office of Prime Minister...
...glance at the quotation board, last week, showed that "The City" expects to see the Conservatives and Laborites matched against each other as two nearly equal Goliaths-with Liberalism's small David Lloyd George twirling between them in his slingshot the dangerous pellet called "balance of power." By allying himself with either Goliath, smart Little David would lay the other low; and although he can scarcely hope to hold the Prime Ministry himself, he could keep the unfortunate incumbent of that office on the hooks...
...property, who bore in mind' last week the infinite capacity of Mr. Lloyd George for chicanery, the Empire seemed to pause on the brink of quite appalling possibilities. In 1924 the Liberal Party held a similar balance of power between Conservatives and Laborites, but in those days, the helm of Liberalism was steadied by the firm hand and moral weight of the Earl of Oxford and Asquith, now dead (TIME., Feb. 27, 1928). Today there is no force within the Liberal Party able to keep Little David from staging his own particular brand of rip-roaring Taffy Welshman...
...give that pledge, whatever party is in power...