ELECTION DRIVE NEARS END

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27666, 24 May 1955, Page 13

ELECTION DRIVE NEARS END

Dullest Campaign Of Century ——————————— > (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, May 22. Britain today went into General Election week as the dullest, deadest political campaign of the century neared its climax. The 35,000,000 electorate will go to the polls on Thursday to vote for a new 630-seat House of Commons, with the Conservatives hoping to return to power, backed by a much bigger majority than the meagre 19 in the last Parliament. Little fire or passion has been aroused by the electioneering. The electors have resolutely refused to get excited, possibly because they have long ago decided which way they will cast their votes.

If the contest has been uneventful this, nevertheless, will be a critical election, for the verdict will be decided by a group of about 60 narrowly-held constituencies, plus a batch in which, the Conservatives will have to fight Liberal as well ' as Labour opponents.

As the campaign moves to a close, party managers and candidates are anxious about three big questions which they cannot answer: (1) Will public opinion be moved by the nagging industrial unrest, brought into focus by the dock strike beginning today, and the threat of rail disorganisation next week-end? If so, will feeling swing against the Labour movement as a whole or will the belief be strengthened that only a Labour government’s policies can ensure industrial peace? (2) Will the new constituency boundaries and new voters registered upset previous patterns? There are 35 new and 185 substantially-altered constituencies and there are more than 250.000 new voters.

(3) Does the strange calm that has settled over the campaign indicate apathy and the prospect of a low poll or a new seriousness about politics and a quiet determination not to be moved away from old beliefs? Party Leaders Puzzled

The chairman of the Conservative Party’s central organisation (Lord Woolton) says this is the most difficult General Election “to get the feel of” in his experience. Even Mr Bevan confesses to be puzzled because the electors have shown so little reaction. The weather on Thursday, and especially in the last two or three hours could have an important effect on the numbers voting, and so on the final result.

About 360 of the 630 results will be announced late on Thursday night or early on Friday morning. Soon after midnight it should be possible to get an idea of the swing in votes —and so on the probable outcome of the election. In this election there are 1409 candidates fighting for the 630 seats. Of these, 92 are women. They are divided into the following groups: Conservatives 624, Labour Party 620. Liberals 110, Communists 15, Sinn Fein Irish Nationalists 8. Welsh Nationalists 7, Scottish Nationalists 2. Independent Labour Party 2, Irish Labour 1. Independents 16. The Independent Labour Party candidates and the Irish Labour representative are not affiliated in any way to the main British Labour Party. The Independents are individuals who belong to no party but who are each pursuing a personal cause. This ranges from one man who wants home rule for an English county to Socialists who have broken away from the Labour Party because they are opposed to some of its nolicies, such as its agreement that Britain should manufacture the hvdrog'-n bomb. The state of parties in the House of Commons after the last 1951 General Election was: Conservatives 321; Labour, » 295: Liberals, 6: Irish Nationalists, 2; Irish Labour Party, 1. This gave the Conservatives a majority of 17 over all other parties. But a Conservative member was appointed Speaker and since he remains neutral in voting, the effective majority was 16. In a by-election subsequently, the Conservatives gained a seat from Labour, putting their majority up to 18. Boundary Changes The reason why there are 630 seats being fought in Thursday’s election where there were only 625 in the last House of Commons is that many of Britain’s const’*’’'’neies have recently had their b~ ies redrawn. This is take acc t of shifts in population and to try to keep Parliamentary areas to an average size. The result has been that five •extra constituencies have emerged. Constituencies vary roughly between 45,000 and 60,000 voters. An odd feature of a British election is that even if the Labour Party gets more total votes throughout the country than its Conservative rivals, this does not necessarily mean that it has won the election.

For example, though the Conservatives were victorious in the 1951 election, they had a nationwide total of only 13.718,119 votes compared with 13,948,985 cast for the Labour Party. The explanation is that Labour candidates have huge majorities concentrated in such constituencies as coalmining areas, whereas Conservative voters are distributed more evenly throughout the country. Total cost of the election, including expenses of the candidates in their preliminary campaigns, will be about £2,000,000. About half comes from the Treasury and the rest from the candidates themselves and their parlies. The law limits the amount of money a candidate can spend on his campaign to £450, plus 2d for eve.y voter on the register in a rural area or lsd a voter in a town area. This rules out heavy spending on brass bands and big publicity functions, and is one of the reasons why a British election is less flamboyant than in some other countries. The spending limit is imposed to avoid bribery and to ensure that a wealthy man has no advantage over a poorer candidate. After the election, the new House of Commons will meet for the first time on June 7 to be formally sworn in. Queen Elizabeth will open the new Parliament a week later.