The Press WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 1968. The Rift Widening?

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31585, 24 January 1968, Page 12

The Press WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 1968. The Rift Widening?

It is no novelty for Mr Wilson to find himself at the centre of a political storm. What must be making the current storm more unnerving for him is the fact that it is within his own party. If the internal explosion cannot be avoided the British Labour Party may well be blasted apart. Long-developing dissensions within the Government, starting perhaps with measures to stabilise the economy by controlling prices and wages, are a major factor in the crisis of confidence which is affecting the country. It may have been brought about largely by the repetition of failure in the Government’s assessment of the economy. Whether successive failures were avoidable or not is another question. What is certain is that the public mood has been deeply affected by them. Devaluation came three years after the Government first said that it would not happen. There was something almost distressing in the Prime Minister’s efforts to avoid open schism in the party—on the eve of a Moscow visit that looks like being as unproductive as those he made in 1966. Yet there is little in the' present atmosphere of revolt to suggest that he 4vill succeed. Only the thought that an election forced now, three years ahead of schedule, would in all probability result in a resounding Labour defeat, may have the effect of restoring order and discipline.

Pressures have been increasing, mainly from within the Trades Union Congress but undoubtedly reflected inside the party, for wage increases which could destroy the export advantages gained through devaluation. Early this month the council for the municipal bus industry ratified an agreement for a 7| per cent wage rise that had been condemned by both the Government and the Prices and Incomes Board. The Government must continue to resist such rises, which cut at the roots of its entire economic recovery programme, even at the risk of widening the rift in the party ranks. There has been talk of resignations over the reimposition of prescription charges and cuts in other welfare services, although, to a majority of the party, they must appear, in prevailing circumstances, unavoidable and possibly overdue. It is likely—politics being what they are—that Labour’s opponents welcome the evidence of a deepening schism. Yet there should be sympathy and concern for the Government’s predicament, because of the series of difficulties and disappointments with which it has had to contend, and because the hard decisions it has had to take have not as yet had time to produce the results hoped for. If the Left is bent on deliberate collision with the Government on the maintenance of welfare and living standards the country is not at the moment able to afford, the outcome should not be long delayed.