BRITISH LABOR

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17919, 25 October 1932, Page 2

BRITISH LABOR

MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS TESTING OF NEW RED POLICY LONDON, October 11. The first effort of British Labor to try its new Red policy on the public •will be made this week, when a, nationwide campaign for the control of .municipal government commences. Ratepayers in 83 county boroughs and 25‘lion-county boroughs in England and Wales will l asked" to fiU WO want seats, for which Labor intends to make a bold bid Avhile the other political parties are determined to meet the challenge with equal enthusiasm. The election is caused by the retirement ot one-third of the members in many cities and towns, the councils affected representing a rateable value of needy £l2l 030,000. So evenly balanced is the present representation in many instances that the poll is certain to decide the political color and policy of a large number of municipalities during me ensuing year. • At the last election, it will be iemembered, Socialists almost everywhere met with spectacular defeat, sustaining a net loss of 24 seats. Indeed only 13 boroughs remained iinder Socialist domination, compared with 24 m 1929. How keen they now are to repair this damage to their* prestige and influence is indicated by a recent statement by Mr Emanuel Shinwell, Secretary foi Mines in the. last Labor Government, ‘‘The first line of attack,” he said, ‘‘should be preparing for the capture of •local authorities this year, and the next to organise the of the ■whole. movement. 1 should have no hesitation in advising opr. people to openly defy the Government when it uses a swollen and misbegotten majority to force economy in municipal expenditure." RESTRICTED EXPENDITURE It is well known, of course, that restriction of municipal expenditure is one of the Chancellor’s trump cards. It cap be taken for grunted, therefore, that every Labor candidate will demand increased spending by the local authoiities, as well as the abandonment of the hated‘“means test.”. The party as a whole will'appeal to popular prejudice bv advocating immediate resumption of all work interrupted by the Government’s policy of national economy, but it remains to be seen how the ratevera will respond, for they more than any other section of the community, have most to gain by a reduction in expenditure. _ In the London area chief interest lies in the elections in the new boroughs of Hendon, Heston, Isi worth, and Barnes, where the whole of the councils will have to stand for election for the first time since their districts were promoted to borough dignity. Boroughs within the Countv of London itself however, are not affected by the poll. Labor’s best prospects appear to be in Manchester and Birmingham and at both places the campaign will he fouaht with special intensity. The landslide which occurred in Birmingham last year, when all the. 26 Socialist candidates who contested the local wards were signally defeated, is hardly like]y to be repeated. Seventeen Conservatives, 10 Socialists and tjwo Independents are retiring, and the boast is alrpadv being made by fhe Labor Party that'it will recapture at least 10 of these seats from the Conservatives alone, but that, too, is a matter for the ratepayers to decide. The Conservatives, on their part, hope to win 15 seats. It has certainly to be admitted that considerable bitterness has been engendered all over the epunf/vy by the interpretation of the applica tion of the “means test,” many Labor councillors having resigned rather than administer it. Whether this bitterness has yet extended to the ratepayers it is impossible to say, hut the general opinion is that the election will probnhlv see a substantial addition to the Socialist strength, if only in accordance the swing of the political pamlu* lum.