11 MARCH 1960, Page 17

LEFT-OVER. LEFT

SIR,-1 am especially glad that it is Mr. Richard Clements of the Tribune who corrects me. Agreed, the Labour Party's Constitution has lots to say about issues besides common ownership—there are seven sub-clauses to Clause IV alone!

Let us now proceed from there. How much impor- tance does Mr. Clements attach to these other ob- jectives of the Party? Precious little, I suggest, for in his view it is 'common ownership' which is the distinctive Socialist objective. And cunning Tories would agree with him.

This is where our differences lie. Mr. Gaitskell does not want to scrap 'common ownership'; all he wants us to do is to reassess its position in our range of Socialist aims.7--Yours faithfully,