Greymouth Evening Star. MONDAY, MAY 23, 1949. Swing From The Left

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 May 1949, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. MONDAY, MAY 23, 1949. Swing From The Left

'IT would be unwise to attach too much significance to the local body elections in Britain as a guide to the outcome of the next general election; it would be equally unwise, however, to dismiss them as irrelevant. The polls resulted in heavy reverses for the Labour-Socialists. On their own admission they lost 1423 seats and gained 481, giving a net loss of 942. They claimed that on the basis of the total vote they held their own in the rural and urbandistricts and lost most of their ground in the London county and borough elections. The fact that the swing away from Labour-Socialism was so pronounced in the London area may be regarded as having special significance. For the London County Council —the Labour-Socialists had controlled the council since 1934—the result of the April election was that the Labour-Socialists and the Conservatives finished equal with G 4 seats each, the former having lost 28 and the latter having gained 36. The extinction of the former Labour-Socialist majority of 58 over the Conservatives was brought about by an aggregate vote of 1,523,000 for the Conservatives against 1,405,000. This loss was experienced despite a vigorous campaign headed by Cabinet Ministers of the Labour-Socialist Government. For the whole of London—county and boroughs—the Labour-Socialists now hold 739 seats and the Conservatives 616, but. for the whole of England and Wales the Conservatives have 1856 seats to the LabourSocialists’ 1778, with Independents holding 941 seats, Liberals 107, and Communists 14. The elections in the Scottish burghs have since confirmed the swing from Socialist administration. The Scottish Socialist Party lost some 30 seats; in Glasgow, where the Socialists had been finnly in control for 15 years, the balance on the Left is now precarious; in Edinburgh Labour-Socialist representation has been reduced to its lowest level for a quarter of a century. Both the Conservative and LabourSocialist parties set out to make the elections a test of national feeling. The Government was particularly anxious to write up a victory; its party had been responsible for forcing local body polls into the political arena in the first place, and it (remands of its adherents that all decisions, either local or national, should be made blindly in accordance with the doctrinaire beliefs of Socialism. It was a prominent Socialist, Mr Strachey, Minister of Food, who went to Dundee before the Scottish burghs elections to emphasise this point. was, he said, “for or against Socialism.” He seems to have had his answer. As we emphasised earlier, however, it would, be unwise to place too much em•phasis on the local body results. Both parties concede that the next election will be decided by the “floating vote,” and it has been pointed out that the local polls may not have given a reliable indication of the present, political disposition of this vote. Nevertheless the Labour-Socialists have admitted that they arc disturbed by the sharp swing from the Left apparent in the local election results. As a leading Cabinet Minister, Mr Herbert Morrison, said, the results arc “difficult, awkward, and embarrassing.” He should not have been surprised. The main trend in world polities, wherever the people still have a voice, has been a swing away from. Communism and its near relative, Socialism.