The State of the British Parties

...By Denis Healey The State of the British Parties London Now that the British parties have held their annual conferences and Parliament is about to resume after the long summer recess, it is a good time to look at the political situation in Britain as a whole...

...There are even stories that Macmillan is going to drop his plan for reforming the House of Lords (so as to allow peers to opt for membership in the House of Commons) because he fears Hailsham's presence in the only chamber from which it is now possible to draw a Prime Minister...

...The New Statesman and Nation, which had always been reserved in its loyalty to Bevan as a rebel, was savagely cruel on his return to orthodoxy...

...For this reason, the conference did not perform its essential function in the Conservative organization as a safety valve for discontented militants...

...The central problem facing Mac-millan today is the one that faced Attlee in 1951—after more than five years in power, there is an intolerable gap between what a postwar British government can do and the Utopian illusions which keep its supporters behind it...

...But there is no doubt that the main reason for his downfall is that Lord Hailsham has emerged as exactly the sort of demagogue the Tory masses really want—and he can rant freely without the governmental inhibitions which handicap Macmillan...

...But more important still, the conference deliberately gave its leaders a free hand to decide their policy on the major issues in the light of the situation at the time...

...Bevan has risen superbly to...

...Gaitskell got a 4-to-l majority for his policy on public ownership, in which for the first time nationalization appears not as a categorical imperative but as just one possible technique among many...

...In fact, it looks as if Macmillan's prestige inside his own party has fallen to the low level at which it stands in the country as a whole...

...the Labor party has already had to expel several of their supporters from local organizations...

...Bevan has surrendered unconditionally—not only abandoning his army but insulting it as he went...

...There has always been something artificial about the Parliamentary reputation which the press has given him...

...The conference agenda was crowded with critical resolutions...

...For most of his party conference, everything was done to woo the floating voter...

...Thus, at the moment the electorate wants less Conservatism, but the Tory militant wants more...

...Certainly Hailsham's unique position may give him a powerful influence in deciding Government policy—and may tempt him to lead an extremist revolt if he does not get his way...

...There is an obvious parallel in the last year of Labor rule...

...Recent Gallup polls give Labor a lead of almost 20 per cent over the Conservatives...

...Moreover, the Communist-dominated unions voted with Bevan in favor of Britain having her H-bomb—a decision which has started some interesting speculation...

...The biggest question which remains is what will happen to the Labor Left now that it has lost its leader—indeed, its leaders, since before Bevan himself rejoined the team he had been preceded by Harold Wilson and Richard Crossman, the only other major figures on the Left...

...When all allowances have been made, this represents a national majority of over 2 million votes, or a Labor landslide of 1945 proportions...

...Both were listened to with respect—Lloyd finally receiving an ovation...

...But it threw an interesting light on the trends of leadership...

...The big flop was Macmillan himself, although he played to the gallery a little—putting America third after the Commonwealth and Europe among Britain's allies, for example...

...The Communists might be expected to try to exploit the disillusionment, but they were completely routed in the elections for union seats on the party executive...

...As it is, the Trotskyites, who developed a marginal influence in some areas during the last war, are likely to be the only organized group to benefit from the disorientation of the Left...

...A few days after the Labor party left, the Conservatives entered the same hall at Brighton for their annual...

...Almost the only situation in which a British government can be forced to surrender power before its time is a major public split in its own ranks...

...Hailsham is a fat and grubby middle-aged lawyer with a quicksilver tongue and an irrepressibly boisterous wit—a Catiline of the lumpen-bourgeoisie...

...Hailsham may yet prove to be the Trojan Horse of the Labor party, since he is the first real leader the Tory malcontents have had...

...Speakers and resolutions were chosen so as to embarrass the Government as little as possible...

...His extraordinary position as a member of the Cabinet with no administrative responsibilities, except to popularize its actions among the party militants, makes him a serious contender for leadership—an ambition he has emphasized by denying it at least once daily ever since his success at the conference...

...One of Gaitskell's most powerful arguments against those who demanded a list of further industries for nationalization was that the next Labor government's legislative program was already full for the first two years, and that priorities for action after this could not be determined so far in advance...

...Even right-wing commentators have expressed concern lest the disintegration of the so-called Bevanites rob the Labor party of an emotional dynamism which is essential to its nature...

...The press and most of the politicians were sure that Harold Macmillan's government was in for rough handling...

...In particular, his decision to give Bevan responsibility for foreign affairs in Parliament after the latter's election as Party Treasurer last year has proved justified to the hilt...

...It solved none of the internal problems which have so long paralyzed the Government's will to act...

...There was no reference to Suez...

...Ian MacLeod, the Minister of Labor, pointed out that 3 million trade unionists vote Conservative, and that the party could never win if it made enemies of the working class...

...And there are still two years before the Government is obliged to go to the polls...

...But in the event it was the tamest Tory conference for years, largely owing to brilliant stage management...

...Nonetheless, all the debates at the Labor party conferences were dominated by the feeling of imminent responsibility...

...A Labor victory in the next general election seems indicated...

...But the percentage of doubtful or Liberal voters is still high enough to cut this majority to unworkable proportions, if not to reverse it...

...The gap is almost unbridgable so long as the party stays in office, since every attempt to satisfy the militants repels the average voter...

...Unity has been achieved entirely on Mr...

...Bevan got a 5-to-l majority against the unilateral renunciation of atomic weapons...

...There is no doubt that one reason why the conference was so loyal to its leaders was the sense that they would soon be in the seats of power...

...His courage has always been taken for granted, but his skill has surprised some of his friends as much as his enemies...

...A great deal of the result was due to the political skill which Gaitskell has shown in the two years since he became leader...

...Labor leader Hugh Gaitskell was well advised to warn his party against complacency...

...Tribune, for long the official organ of Bevanism, was stunned with shock, but preserved its sympathy for Bevan as a man although it attacked his new policies...

...In the economic field as in defense and foreign policy, Britain's survival depends on choosing a clear line of action and slicking to it over a period of years...

...A resolution which demanded a showdown with the unions was refused discussion...

...In the debate on the H-bomb, Aneurin Bevan spoke as the next Labor Foreign Secretary, who did not want "to be sent naked into the conference chamber, able only to preach sermons...

...the challenge, despite the agonizing rupture of old friendships which it involved...

...The major problems facing Britain, like so many other democracies at the present time, cannot lie solved In compromises between positions which are fundamentally incompatible...

...Before any of the debates had begun, the elections for the constituency seats on the Executive showed that rigid sectarianism was dissolving and people were being chosen on their merits as individuals rather than their labels as Left or Right...

...Gaitskell's terms," it wrote, "and Mr...

...But the conference suggested that the party is tired of dogmatic arguments between self-styled leftists and rightists about problems which are irrelevant to the real issues...

...Macmillan, himself the product of a militant revolt after the Suez debacle, has tried to solve the problem by using his bugle to sound the advance as he leads his troops backwards...

...Selwyn Lloyd, the Foreign Secretary, argued the impossibility of going it alone...

...On the other hand, he could do even greater harm to his party in the long run by compelling the Government to compromise with its extremists...

...And when the gulf between his own words and actions became too obvious to hide, he appointed the maverick Lord Hailsham as Party Chairman to do the talking while he got on with the job...