BRITISH POLITICS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25386, 18 November 1943, Page 5

BRITISH POLITICS

PROSPECTS OF AN ELECTION ANTI-CONSERVATIVE TREND (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent) (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 16. Great Britain is tending increasingly towards a general election. It is true that this will not take place until the end, of the European war, but attention has been switching to it ever since Mr Churchill’s “four-year plan was broadcast. His recent Mansion House speech, his reference to post-war plans, and the appointment of Lord Woolton as Minister of Reconstruction have also increased discussion. Mr Churchill has apparently changed his views, and no longer*maintains that the coalitjon should continue for some time after the war on the ground , that reconstruction is too national in importance and too complicated in execution to be conducted on party lines. It is considered that he found the impossibility, even in a solid united War Cabinet, of reaching a sufficiently high measure of agreement on both principles and details to make the bold decisions required. The majority of opinion, both in the Conservative and Labour Parties, is swinging towards a general election, and it is, observed that this is putting the Labour Ministers in a somewhat painful dilemma, since every effort Messrs Attlee, Morrison, Bevin, and Dalton make towards post-war reconstruction may accrue to the credit of Mr Churchill' and, through him, to the Conservative Party. It is considered that they can escape from the dilemma by takirtg care, while doing their duty in the Government, to see that the country gets a clear .and consistent exposition of Labour’s view and policies for the post-war period, but at present this has not happened, and although Mr Morrison has made several important speeches it is /not clear whether he speaks for the party as a whole.

Mr Morrison himself recently warned the Labour Party that the British electorate “would not be disposed to give its trust to a party that did not know its own mind.” He was referring to various parliamentary divisions in which Labour was deeply divided in the lobby. He added that the splits in the Labour Party threatened to become more than occasional and that, worse still, the Labour front bench itself had been splitting. The Economist, commenting that while it is too early to guess the electorate’s verdict, says: “The Conservatives will have the enormous prestige of Mr Churchill’s name still further enhanced by the victory attained. But the tide of popular thought and desire would seem to be running very strongly against the Conservatives (in so far as it can distinguish them from the person of Mr Churchill), but the present anti-Conservative trend is not visibly complemented by a pro-Labour trend. The issue is likely to be decided by a mixture of what the Government does and what the Labour leaders say. If Mr Churchill is in earnest about ‘fqod, homes, and work for all,’ and if Labour supporters continue to devote more energy to internal responsibilities to the community there will be a Conservative triumph at the polls.” Whether the war-time controls shall be continued after the war, and for how long, is another subject which is to produce a big political battle, the opening shots of which have already been fired.