BRITISH LABOUR’S TEAM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 6 August 1945, Page 4

BRITISH LABOUR’S TEAM

NEW blood mixed with old is to be found in the personnel of the British Labour Administration, which the Prime Minister (Mr. Attlee) has now completed. Since the party has been out of office for so long it was only to be expected that fresh talent recruited to its ranks would show up among the names of the new Ministers and those chosen for the subordinate posts. Along with ‘the stalwarts are men and women who are little known in New Zealand and a few about whom the British people have not heard very much. Their records, however, suggest that ability rather than time-serving has been the test of selection from the large number of able candidates offering. The reins of government have not been handed over to youth. In Britain it is customary to have a Cabinet, a number of Ministers outside the Cabinet and a good many under-secretaries, the total personnel of the Administration numbering over a hundred. The average age of Mr Attlee’s 25 Ministers is 61, the youngest of them being about 38. While the Prime Minister, in choosing his team, has consulted his senior colleagues and perhaps the party executive privately, he does not appear to have worked under the handicap of caucus selection, which obtains with Labour Governments in Australia and New Zealand. There is thus a better chance for the cream to rise to the top. The hold of the trade union officials on the party has been broken. They now account for a representation of 84 in a total of 404. Moreover, though Labour’s philosophy is well to the Left of Centre, there is no marked tendency displayed yet to favour administrators who want to plunge the party into' irresponsible Leftism. Perhaps Mr E. Shinwell, Minister of Fuel, and Mr Aneurin Bevan, who is allotted the portfolio of Health, may turn out to be exceptions. The moderate men, of whom the Prime Minister is one of the most moderate, know they have been charged with a mandate to get things done. They are also realising early that a big Parliamentary majority will not avail much if they are going to abuse the trust of public opinion which has placed them in office.