Conservatives’ Manifesto Left Good Impression

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27300, 28 January 1950, Page 7

Conservatives’ Manifesto Left Good Impression

British Elections:

From A. W. Mitchell, NZPA Special Correspondent LONDON, Jan. 26. Britain’s general election campaign is warming up but the heat is not yet quite “ on." Fresh fuel this week has. of course, been the Conservative Party’s manifesto, and it can be said at once that on the whole it made a better impression than did the Labour Party’s earlier statement. Indeed, it was probably more favourably received than Mr Churchill’s week-end broadcast if private conversations are anything to go by. This, perhaps was because Mr Churchill’s remarks were regarded more in the nature of an opening gambit and as prepartion for the manifesto which came a few days later.

Though the manifesto has naturally bpen attacked by the Labour Party and also by the Trades Union Congress, it has cheered up many Conservatives, who until recently had been inclined towards dolefulness. While Labour circles have been exuding confidence that the Government will be returned, there had been a tendency among Conservatives to hope but to doubt. Indeed, they were chided for this attitude in a leading article by the Daily Mail. Change Noted

A change can now be observed, and it is noted by the financial correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, for instance, that more city people now expect Labour to be overthrown. Undoubtedly some of this swing can be attributed to the Conservative now epect Labour to be overthrown, manifesto with its promises of taxation cuts, of increased private building, of a halt to nationalisation. Many people, particularly in the middle classes, favour an end to bulk buying and some reorganisation of food rationing and. subsidies. This is a point, however, which has been seized upon by Mr Morgan Phillips, powerful secretary of the Labour Party. In an article in the Daily Herald he first of all admits that the Conservative manifesto “ marks the beginning of the toughest political battle the Labour movement has ever had to face.” It is clear, he adds, that the Conservatives mean to create a paradise—“ but only for the rich.” Food Policy (

Then Mr Phillips inveighs against the Conservatives’ “ open attack on the whole principle of food subsidies,” and declares that the party will ‘‘apparently be happy to see an increase in the cost of living.” Total abolition of food subsidies would increase the cost of living by more than 10 per cent., he says, and any substantial reduction of subsidies would make it more difficult to make both ends meet. He declares that one of the first consequences of any substantial increase in the price of food would be that many people would no longer be able to afford their rations, and he proclaims that the final result of the Tory manifesto would be: Prices rocketing, the rich getting richer and the poor geeting poorer, desperate attempts to force wages up in line with prices, the end of Britain’s magnificent recovery, and finally a collapse into unemployment. This is the typical “ flesh creeping ” type of argument favoured by Labour. In addition to this “reply” by Mr Phillips, the TUC leaders have, in the words of The Times labour correspondent, “shown themselves suspicious and hostile to friendly , and care-fully-phrased passages dealing with Labour policy in the Conservatives’ manifesto.” Workers’ Problems The correspondent adds: “ Though the manifesto does not appear to have appeased union leaders, it is more difficult to say what effect it may have on the rank and file of the workers. The manifesto is remarkable for the attention and sympathy which it gives to their problems, and is evidence of an important development in Conservative thinking.” One point that is becoming increasingly clear is that both Labour and Conservatives, while consolidating the ranks of their own supporters, are making their chief overtures to that indefinite section of the public described rather vaguely as the “ floating” vote, and which probably includes more middle-class voters than any other. ' This section will be influenced not only by the manifestos of the parties, but probably to a greater extent by election broadcasts.