PROD FOR GOVERNMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 8, 11 January 1944, Page 5

PROD FOR GOVERNMENT

Rec. 11.30 a.m. RUGBY, January 10. "The Times," commenting on the result of the Skipton by-election, points out that the inclination to desert orthodox candidates is particularly strong in wartime, and that the result affords no serious evidence that the Common Wealth movement has yet made appreciable progress towards realising its ambition to win every rural constituency. The newspaper observes, however, that prudent citizens are beginning to look beyond immediate exigencies and anxieties and that the coalition will increasingly depend on the capacity of its present programme which will inspire new confidence in its ability to meet emergencies already looming ahead. The "Yorkshire Post" says few people feel that the election reveals substantial support for the policy of Common Wealth ownership advocated by a small group of social theorists, but that it may be taken to indicate that a considerable section of voters felt they might well use the occasion to prod the Government into showing greater energy and determination in its approach to problems of post-war planning. The result indicates weaknesses in the appeal made by the present coalition, which tends to blanket normal political discussion while the truce produces impatience and frustration among many electors. The coalition should therefore not only be actiye in planning but make its activity widely known.-*-B.Q.W.