The Chicken Run in Britain

...and Clare Short speaks for the party on women's issues...

...Blair is therefore sending his chief deputies—the men and women who appear likely to lead Britain into the 21 st century—to special classes...

...The Labor side of the house, with 271 MPs, boasts 38 women, a figure that is expected to rise to about 90 in the next Parliament as a result of the party's efforts to promote the selection of female candidates...

...Having been Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition since 1979, the Laborites, though confident of victory in the next elections, are open to the charge that they lack governmental experience...

...Not long ago...

...In his first attempt, Lamont was humiliatingly rejected in favor of a less prominent figure, and had to move on to see if he might have better luck elsewhere...

...The difficulty is that many true-blue Conservative voters want their politicians to wear, at worst, blazers and slacks...

...Harriet Harman is Labor's health spokesperson...

...Formerly impenetrable Tory strongholds such as Guildford and Cheltenham, for example, are at risk...

...COURTING THE KINGMAKERS The Chicken Run in Britain BY NORMAN GELB London DESPITE its grandeur, the Palace of Westminster is traditionally the scene of raucous debates that make the partisan exchanges in Congress seem like tea parties...

...baggers most eagerly stalk the constituencies of party MPs who have been tarnished by minor sexual or financial scandals, or have otherwise suffered a bad press...

...To be sure, the Tories have seen worse days...

...All this has thrown the vulnerable MPs into an unseemly scramble for political survival, exacerbated by electoral district changes that will further reduce the numberof solidly Conservative constituencies...

...But rarely has there been a situation in British politics as undignified as the one now prevailing in parts of the Conservative Party...

...House of Commons Speaker Betty Boothroyd regularly feels obliged to command members of Parliament to retract forbidden personal insults on pain of suspension...

...Among the women already in place are several of Blair's closest aides...

...His taking the step was an expression of disgust with the Major government's rumblings and U-turns, and its toleration of political and financial sleaze...

...At their own expense they are being taught, among other things, to change pinstripes and brogues for jeans, sweatshirts and loafers when visiting constituents on weekends or during election campaigns...

...No less telling is the recent decision by MP Alan Howarth, a former minister and one-time head of the Tory Research Department, to turn his back on his old colleagues andjoin the Labor Party...

...It has been a long time since the London Daily Mail, a firmly pro-Conservative tabloid, has hinted that it might sympathetically examine Labor's proposals for improving the country's economic performance and reviving its sagging spirits...

...Parliamentary candidates are nominated by local party organizations...

...The consequent spectacle of established Tory parliamentarians hurriedly staking claims in districts still considered "safe" that they have never represented, and denigrating each other's political qualifications as they woo local king makers, is hardly edifying...

...BUT THE TORIES are not the only politicians back in school...

...Tory tacticians are sadly aware that Blair has given Labor a youthful, dynamic aura their own party lacks...

...A representative target is Hartley Booth, who, with Margaret Thatcher's blessings, succeeded her as MP for north London's Finchley district...

...several once staunchly pro-Conservative newspapers are defecting or wavering in their support...

...A daycare center will probably be set up in the House of Commons for the first time in history...

...at present there are only three...

...Judith Church, for instance, is a key adviser...

...Blair then sharply instructed her to stick to her own brief, but has made it clear that she remains a valued figure on the party's front bench...

...Blair himself is being spared the how-to lessons...

...One need only recall Winston Churchill's being overwhelmingly voted out of office in 1945 after leading the country to victory in World War II...

...Another difficulty for him in the current political atmosphere concerns gender...

...The comparative ease with which he marginalized once formidable Labor left-wing personalities, including Tony Benn and Dennis Skinner, has indeed earned Blair much respect and credibility across the political spectrum...

...Now local selectors are dropping him for a Tory MP who otherwise might have been out in the cold come election day...

...As the country prepares for a general election that Conservative Prime Minister John Major is likely tocall next autumn —although by law he could wait until the following spring—a significant segment of his party's MPs have grown demoralized and desperate: A relentless succession of public opinion polls indicates the Tories will be trounced by the Labor Party, whatever the date of the balloting...

...To Prime Minister Major's consternation, these pronouncements have enabled the "new" Labor Party to hog the middle ground in British politics...

...The Confederation of British Industry and the Institute of Directors have conspicuously welcomed his promise that a Labor government would promote cooperation between public and private enterprise...

...If many more women are in fact elected to Parliament, there is bound to be more than a change of party in the Palace of Westminster...

...Well before election time, activists in each constituency draw up a short list of possible standard bearers whom they then interview and, theoretically, choose from...

...His own efforts to cling to some part of the Center have so far been largely foiled by pressure from his right wing, and without its support in Parliament Major could be defeated tomorrow...

...to 5 p.m...

...Short responded to a question on television by conceding that, contrary to Labor policy, she favored government review of whether marijuana should be decriminalized...

...His questionable relationship with a House of Commons research assistant made headlines not long ago...

...a betterplace...

...The whole procedure is normally undramatic, since the short list is most often a formality and everyone knows in advance who is slated to be selected...

...They are being lectured on how to run government departments and how to cope with criticism in Parliament and the press...

...Even the Spectator, the Right-wing in-tellectuals' forum that maintains Tony Blair is all image rather than substance, concedes that when he "speaks of renewal and rebirth, or bringing youth and energy back to Britain...

...and eminent Tory thinkers are already discussing—none-too-discreetly—the remolding of the party after the anticipated debacle...

...As in the United States, women's issues have risen high on the political agenda here, but of 328 sitting Conservative MPs, only 12 are female...

...Perhaps most important for them is learning how to deal with frequently intimidating Civil Service mandarins who have been managing the administration of Britain from the beginning of Thatcher's prime ministerial reign and are attuned to Tory ways and values...

...Nor is the Conservative Central Office happy that the carpetNORMAN GELB reports regularly for The New Leader on British affairs...

...Good will has al so resulted from the assurances of Blair's Treasury spokesman, Gordon Brown, that a Labor government will not be driven by a tax-and-spend philosophy...

...In this climate, even some senior Conservatives like former Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont have gone hat in hand to local party branches to ask to be nominated...

...Similarly, Blair's call for his senior colleagues to develop plans for a radical overhaul of the welfare system has drawn tentative nods of approval from many who have in the past sharply ridiculed the party's proposals...

...And pressure is certain to mount fora 9 a.m...

...But their situation today seems particularly grim...

...No leading party figure has ever held senior ministerial office...

...His spokesmen explain that he had plenty of on-the-job training in leadership while establishing his authority over Labor's disparate and fractious wings after taking the party's helm on July 22,1994...

...But thanks to opposition leader Tony Blair's energetic refashioning of the Labor Party, plus widespread middle class disenchantment with the Conservatives' performance, the pickings are slim...

...In an effort to snuff out the popular perception of Conservatives as antediluvian, they have organized classes for current and would-be MPs...

...In Greater London alone it appears that 17 long-held Tory seats will be lost...

...A lot of Tories (and some Laborites) who devote their morning hours to lucrative outside jobs will not like that at all...

...In what the British media have irreverently termed "the chicken run," those fearful of rejection are scouring the country in search of districts whose middle-class or rural inhabitants can be counted on to vote Tory...

...MPs ambling by in jeans would discomfit them...

...Something will have to be done as well about providing additional women's toilets...

...it does represent what a lot of people want to hear now: the idea that Britain can be...

...parliamentary working day, instead of the long-standing afternoon-evening schedule of 2:30 to 10:30...

...This time around so many Conservatives expect to lose their seats that their anxious politicking has upset the usual selection routine...