Tory Triumph

"We have been repulsed," the leader of Britain's Labor Party concluded quite rightly after a severe electoral thrashing last week. This rejection, which gives the Conservatives their longest term of office since 1827, is a great opportunity not only for the Tories, but also for the Laborites and the Liberals.

The Conservative victory, although it represents a popular vote majority of less than 6 per cent over the Opposition, is decisive in Parliament. With 28,000,000 British voters giving 365 seats to the Conservatives, 258 to Labor and six to the Liberals, the Tory majority was nearly doubled to a surprising 101 seat advantage.

Although, as some of Prime Minister Macmillan's detractors have observed, a fine, un-English summer and the news of an impending addition to the royal family have conspired to help the Conservatives, there remain sound reasons for Macmillan's success. The first is prosperity. With full employment, a stable pound, lowered taxes, increased social services and the healthiest export-import situation in this century, most of England is enjoying unprecedented prosperity. Another helpful issue was foreign affairs. Despite the electoral liability, especially in Scotland, of recent abuses of power in Kenya and Nyasaland, Macmillan's leadership in trying to break the cold war deadlock and get to the summit gave the Conservatives an edge in external affairs.

But perhaps the greatest Tory asset was Harold Macmillan himself and the general post war image of his party which he has helped to create in the public mind. This is the image of a united, progressive, responsible party which can maintain Britain's role abroad and bring prosperity without state control at home. By retaining much nationalization and by extending most of the welfare state the Conservatives have stolen many of Labor's robes. By denationalizing less suitable industries and by reducing taxes and state controls, they have retained their traditional right-wing support.

Hugh Gaitskill's Laborites, although they have retained the support of over forty per cent of the electorate, must do more than lick their wounds if they are to regain power at all. The composition of the British electorate, representing the highest industrial working class in the world, should be uniquely favorable to a left-wing party. Yet in no election has the Labor Party won even fifty per cent of the vote. One of every three manual workers votes Conservative, including over three million trade unionists whos unions are committed to the Labor Party.

With prosperity rising and class lines blurring, the old socialist slogans are becoming bogeys, rather than attractions. Nationalization is now an electoral liability even among Laborite voters. Thus last Thursday, Ian Mikardo, vice-Chairman of the Labor Party and leader of the party left, lost his industrial seat to a Conservative. Where the promise of equality attracted votes before, the offer of opportunity is winning them now.

In this situation, the old party battle between, moderates and radicals, intellectuals and unionists should intensify. Whatever the result, the Laborites clearly did not lose on Thursday because of Hugh Gaitskell, who ran a tough and expert campaign. Instead, the Labor Party lost because they failed to convince the voters that they offered a coherent and responsible alternative to a smoothly operating Tory government.

The Labour decline was also assisted by a timely and needed Liberal revival. Although the Liberals secured only six seats, as in each of the past two contests, they ran twice as many candidates as in 1955 and received over twice as many votes. Many of these were clearly protest votes, largely drawn from old Laborites and new voters. Most Liberal platforms were broad statements of interest in the "little man" and appeals for the liberalization of trade.

The Labour Party, shaken by its fourth decline in as many elections, must now resolve its feuds and discover a new appeal to England's decreasingly class-conscious electorate. Jo Grimmond's reviving Liberals, if they are to regain a really challenging role in British politics, now have the chance to demonstrate that they are a party of principles, and not merely a vehicle of dissatisfaction.

With his strong parliamentary advantage, Macmillan will be able to develop the policies which have brought England unprecedented prosperity domestically and a new leadership in the cold war abroad. If the Tories can avoid the temptations which such a strong majority offers, and not overlook such domestic considerations as localized unemployment and low pensions, they could bring five years of progressive domestic government. Similarly, if they are sufficiently flexible to reconsider the problems of British Africa and of the challenge of a united continental Europe, Macmillan's government could give England a renewed position in the world.