Key Role For Party Organisers At Polls

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27637, 19 April 1955, Page 13

Key Role For Party Organisers At Polls

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, April 18. The party which would- win the British election would be the one which persuaded the higher proportion of its supporters to go to the polls, the weekly “New Statesman and Nation,” said in an article on election prospects.

It says that 10 years ago some of Mr Attlee’s most influential advisers were telling him that an early appeal to the country would be disastrous. Yet, when the results were announced, the Labour Party was as unprepared for its victory as Sir Winston Churchill was for his defeat.

“What Transport House (headquarters of the Labour Party) omitted to notice was that the country makes up its mind about the government it wants with very little regard for the mood and predictions of either Westminster or Fleet street,” the article said. “What politicians and editors propose is one thing; what the electorate decides is usually something quite different. “It is by no means impossible that having taken a look at that impeccable Tory quadrumvirate Sir Anthony Eden, Mr R. A. Eutler, Mr Harold iMacmillan, and Lord Salisbury—the man in the street will feel that their 'shade of blue is too true for him and

will plump again for Mr Attlee as a leader he can trust. “What strikes a detached observer at present is the indifference of the average elector to the propaganda of the two party machines,” the journal adds. “Although the election is the only topic of conversation among professional politicians, it has so far failed to raise a ripple of excitement among those they represent. The Conservative managers had hoped that the local government election campaign would lead into the national campaign and give a strong indication that the nation is grateful to Mr Butler for the prosperity at home and to Sir Anthony Eden for the peace abroad. “Mood of Indifference” “It was not unnatural for the Conservative headquarters to expect a swing of the pendulum this spring. That swing has not taken place. The Tory gains were all made owing to the sag, and in some instances the collapse, of the Labour vote. “The apathy afflicts both sides. The newspaper strike, by damping down political controversy, has had something to do with this mass abstention from the polls. “But Sir Anthony Eden, as well as Mr Attlee, must recognise that the present mood for the vote is one of indifference. “We suspect that overtime in the

factory and television in the home are more potent causes of this indifference than the newspaper stoppage, and the party managers would be unwise to assume that it will vanish when the dispute ends.

“In these circumstances, the party will win which succeeds in striking a spark on damp tinder. The 1945 election was won and lost long before the campaign started. The 1955 election will be decided by and during the campaign. It will not be a matter of Sir Anthony Eden winning Labour votes, or Mr Attlee converting the Tories to socialism: the party will win which persuades the higher proportion of its supporters to go to the polls.

“In brief, it is party organisation which will probably decide the issue. Since party organisation, however, means nothing except the enthusiastic voluntary activity of tens of thousands of unpaid workers, one important conclusion follows: Mr Attlee should address his appeal in the first place to the militant socialists in the constituencies, and the trade union branches, and give them a message which restores their flagging spirit. “Without their enthusiasm and hard work, the non-political Labour voter will remain by his television set on polling day in the General Election as he did in the local elections this month. But if the party workers are inspired by the Socialist election programme they could repeat on a smaller scale the reversal of the pre-election prophecies which was achieved in 1945.”