PARTY ENERGY

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 123, 21 November 1945, Page 4

PARTY ENERGY

CONSERVATIVE EFFORTS TO CLARIFY POLICY

(Special P.A. Correspondent.) LONDON, November 20

Criticism is frequently heard in political circles that the Conservative Opposition has no policy, and the "New Statesman and Nation" has gone as far as to suggest that it is deliberately leaving the job of opposition to the Government back-benchers and waiting for a Government measure for which there is a possibility of whipping up-popxilar indignation. Apparently there is some point in these criticisms, since the Central Council of the Conservative Party is meeting tomorrow, under the chairmanship of Mr. R. A. Butler, when there will be discussions with the object of clarifying and strengthening policy; Mr. Churchill will take the opportunity of delivering his first speech to a fully representative muster of the Conservative Party since the General Election, and though it is not expected that he . will indicate, any change or major development in party policy, he is expected to refer to all the main current political issues. It has been remarked by Mr. Eden that, while there is happily no cleavage between the parties on foreign policy, there are sharp and growing differences in domestic policies between the two sides in the House of Commons. Broadly, they are the result of the extent to which the Government is allowing subservience to Socialist dogma to dictate, their daily politics.

CONSERVATIVE CRITICISM

In particular, the Conservatives are concerned with the maintenance and extension of controls and what they regard as the Government's firm intention to restrict liberty. They are becoming increasingly critical, one comment being that the Government is dealing with conditions and events not as they actually are, but as they exist in the world of Socialist imaginings.

This feeling grows with every new measure of control and nationalisation, and now there is additional restiveness at the Government's intention to repeal the Trades Disputes Act, 1927, wheh made illegal a repetition of the 1926 general strike. Its repeal will mean that a general strike will once more be legal, trade unions will be able to take compulsory political levies from all members who do not deliberately "contract out," civil servants will be able to belong to trade unions affiliated to the T.U.C., and will able to join in industrial strikes, and local authorities will be free to refuse to employ anyone who does not belong to a trade union. The Opposition will press for the fullest debate. The Conservatives are well pleased to have Mr. Brendan Bracken and Mr. Harold Macmillan back in the House of Commons,, but it is remarked that Labour is the only party that can get. much satisfaction from the result of the Bournemouth by-election which returned Mr. Bracken. The Labour poll rose by 3000, but 11,000 fewer electors voted for Mr. Bracken than for his predecessor. Whether this was apathy or lukewarmness for Mr. Bracken is a moot point. Mr. Bracken, in spite of his success as Minister of Information, is strangely lacking in popularity throughout the country at the moment. 1 A feature^of both these by-elections is the falling away of the Liberal vote, indicating that the party's fortunes are ■ continually on the ebb. OTHER PARTY CONFERENCES. After the Conservatives have held their conference, the Labour Party Executive Committee will meet local j Labour authorities from all over the country on December 8 and 9. Their ! conference will be held at Nottingham, and will be attended by leading Ministers, including^Mr. Morrison, Dr. Daltqn, Mr. Bevan. and Miss Ellen Wilkinson. The Scottish Labour groups are also meeting shortly, and the purpose of both conferences is to "demonstrate that the Labour Party, from Minister to councillor, are members of a great national team imbued with a single aim—Socialism in our time." Another political meeting will be that of the British Communist Party, which is holding its annual conference in London from November 2.4 to November 26. No fewer than 317 resolutions from branches throughout the country will be discussed, including a long series criticising the Labour Government's foreign policy, and in particular a number demanding a purge of reactionary elements in the Foreign Office. There are demands for BritishSoviet unity and condemnation of secrecy about the atomic bomb. A Government wages policy is asked for ;by several branches, and the speeding up of negotiating machinery. The 8.8.C. is attacked.

All these conferences are indicative of political energy throughout Britain. At the same time, Parliament has a very busy month ahead before the Christmas recess, which is fixed tentatively for December 20 and will last one month. Civil aviation, agriculture, demobilisation, and the Washington economic talks are expected to be among the subjects debated between now and the recess, in addition, of course, to foreign affairs.