The Twilight of Michael Foot
GELB, NORMAN
LABOR LOOKS ELSEWHERE The Twilight of Michael Foot by norman gelb London In few countries where there is a free choice are voters influenced by the cult of personality to the same degree as in...
...On the other hand, he is generally recognized as temperate and intelligent, and he is sufficiently attached to traditional British values to have backed the Falklands escapade without hesitation...
...Still, prominent Laborites have inevitably begun toying with the notion of easing in a more credible successor...
...Besides, where would they go...
...And with the Thatcher government persisting in its efforts to clamp down on trade union rights and power, it is not surprising that Britain's union bosses are intimately involved in this mulling...
...No figure commands solid support across the party spectrum, or exudes enough charisma to challenge the formidable Thatcher for the public's affection...
...No Labor-ite, save the occasional hysterical leftist hardhead, has ever had an unkind word for Michael Foot...
...Despite an unemployment crisis that, by everyone's admission, will get worse instead of better...
...The catch is finding an acceptable candidate for the post...
...Still, a politician's personal appeal can sometimes be of overriding importance even in societies that have long considered American electoral razzmatazz a grotesque joke-as the present situation in usually sober Great Britain demonstrates...
...He opposes both unilateral nuclear disarmament and British withdrawal from the European Community...
...Benn's wing of the party is considered a lunatic fringe by most of the press...
...As for Foot's personal popularity, the surveys indicate that less than one in eight voters thinks highly of his leadership performance...
...He will not be pushed roughly aside...
...It had been sniping at him lately, labeling him a captive of the right despite his previously immaculate left-wing credentials...
...They are not threatening to desert Labor in its moment of need...
...Labor has been immersed in the doldrums for several years, and Foot????for all his sparkling oratory and good fellowship????is being constrained to carry the can for its shortcomings...
...Roy Hattersley, the shadow Home Secretary, is a bright, articulate, imaginative politician who has consistently managed to hug the party's center...
...With membership dues dwindling and contributions from trade unions????hurt by the galloping unemployment????also in decline, Labor is virtually bankrupt...
...Kinnock's ascendancy would be premature at this point, though, since he has had little ministerial experience...
...Some of them, in fact, have made it clear that they are appalled by Labor's prospects in the coming electoral contest...
...He insists he will lead Labor to victory in the next election...
...Nevertheless, he has become an embarrassment...
...His major drawback is a reputation for being calculating and ambitious...
...Publicly, loyalty to Foot is being maintained...
...Every possible fundraising scheme is being explored...
...Last year, its cash assets amounted to ?0,000 (or $137,000), about a quarter of the sum necessary to mount so much as the pretense of a serious election campaign...
...Now, realizing that a shift in the Leadership is apt to leave them further away from the seat of power, the Bennites have rediscovered some of Foot's virtues...
...Several influential union leaders have discreetly noised their backing for Shore...
...He himself is probably the least loved man in Westminster, provoking hatred in his political antagonists, not just sharp disagreement...
...The unknown factors for Labor are Tory policy and world economic trends...
...His vaunted forceful personality has certainly failed to contain, let alone resolve, the fratricidal struggle between the party's left and right wings...
...Neil Kinnock, the capable, widely liked Labor education spokesman, offers the advantage of a leftist who disapproves of Benn's program, and so is despised as a traitor by the extremists...
...The London Observer recently reported that a staggering one in four British workers has been jobless at some time in the past year...
...Deputy Party Leader Denis Healey is disqualified by his role as nemesis of Labor's left...
...Shore is also of the left, with a strong antipathy to the Common Market...
...The attempt to adjust to cost-cutting reforms is a growing source of frustration, too...
...Labor's popularity has continued to slump steadily during his tenure...
...Tony Benn, the far-left standard bearer who unsuccessfully challenged Healey for the party's number two slot last year, is similarly out of the contest...
...Nationwide, Labor is down to 67 full-time salaried Norman Gelb, the NL's London correspondent, is author of The British, recently published by Everest House...
...At best, it seems, he may linger on through the next elections, expected about a year from now and legally bound to be held by the spring of 1984...
...But he has been made aware of the alarmed union men's feelings, and will have a hard time resisting the pressure for change without a dramatic recovery in the months ahead for the Labor Party...
...Perhaps that is as it should be...
...The far left, interestingly, has suddenly been converted to Foot's camp...
...According to the party's own annual report, membership is at its lowest level in 50 years...
...Foot has dismissed suggestions that he is being levered out as "stuff and nonsense...
...ideological and sentimental ties to the party remain strong...
...Employees at the South London national headquarters have had to accept the sort of pay restraints their employer condemns when they are forced on other British workers...
...This makes him, in a pinch, acceptable to the right...
...and some analysts claim the official count is an overestimate...
...Anyway, Benn's return to Parliament in the next elections is doubtful, and British Cabinet ministers are required to be MPs...
...The union chiefs simply are convinced that if the Conservatives seem likely to beat Labor even in working class districts, the unrelenting economic slump notwithstanding, something is seriously wrong with the party-and as leader Foot stands out...
...Whatever the case, the decline has been most dramatic over the last three years...
...local officials, compared to more than 300 for the Conservatives...
...Should the economy improve, Labor's prospects????under Foot or anyone else-would be dimmer still...
...If the polls are tobe believed, however, support forthe Conservatives barely wavers, while Labor is having a hard time remaining a distant second, ahead of the newly-blooded Social Democratic-Liberal alliance...
...The man emerging as the most viable successor to Foot is Peter Shore, currently shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer...
...Yet, allowing for marginal ups and downs, public opinion polls consistently show a huge advantage for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her Tories...
...Organizational economies have been instituted as well, but they will hardly spur the party's fortunes...
...LABOR LOOKS ELSEWHERE The Twilight of Michael Foot by norman gelb London In few countries where there is a free choice are voters influenced by the cult of personality to the same degree as in the United States...
...Government unemployment statistics hover around 12 per cent for the country, and more than twice that in some areas...
...While these are not uncommon traits in a statesman, they rub many of Hattersley's Labor colleagues the wrong way...
...That conflict remains one of the most salient features of British politics...
...Nor has Foot, as anticipated, provided a rallying point for Britons disillusioned by their country's economic plight under the Tories...
...The British Labor Party is on its way to ditching the exceedingly decent bloke who has been its Leader for two years because not too many voters appear to take him seriously...
...In desperation, mantelpiece donation boxes are being distributed to the rank and file, so that the odd coin might be dropped into help out...
...At the same time, nothing in the samplings suggests that a change at the top would improve the party's standing...
...Consequently, there is strong sentiment among them to advance the process already under way and have him step down before the balloting...
...The electorates of most other democracies tend to focus much more on issues than on the images of individual "communicators...
Vol. 65 • October 1982 • No. 18
