,The
apectator October 12, 1974 Wilson seems the most skilled, and Mr Heath the most obdurate, of politicians, both have, been excessively plastic in the hands °I unelected, self-chosen sycophants. Advisers of Mr Wilson are wont to descant on the elliptical wisdom of his obscure remarks. after meetings of the Cabinet or the National Executive Committee; and advisers of 1‘.4.1., Heath likewise remark on that felicity for detal! which is very surely his and on which commented last week. No one, not even a close friend, can suggest an originating thought, new idea, a singular defence, from either Man' All, it seems, is tactics. Now that he has declared himself to be an Ulsterman we must, I think, regret the departure of Mr Enoch Powell from the centre of our politics, however great an influence he will remain in the future. But there is, in the, context in which I am writing, one fact abo. uL Mr Powell which is of consequence in judging his appeal to the people. He was always his 0)11 man. His latest detractor, dear old Loru Hailsham, has observed that Enoch has gone across the water to betray somebody else; hu', the astonishing power Mr Powell has continued to exercise over the majority of his fellovicountrymen drew its strength from the working of his personality and consistency, not fronl his prejudices. Most of Mr Powell's critics have excused their own inability to face and outface what he has been saying for nearly twentY, years by arguing that he is an exploiter 01 prejudice; but I can recall that, when I work e! at the Conservative Research Department anu was, as a matter of conviction as well as ep pitted against him, Mr Powell was held. b) hundreds of correspon'dents to be a straight man. He needed, he needs, no Professor Donoghue, no Lady Falkender, no Mr DaY, Mr Waldegrave. Where would Mr Wilson anu Mr Heath be without them? In the difficult days which the country n°,_vi faces it is essential that our leaders De themselves, whether in victory or defea,t. Nearly every man at the centre of our public lite is an honourable man, one striving to do his best. But almost all of them are puzzled as t° where they can seek inspiration. The Queen: First Lord of the Treasury should seek 11,. inspiration from opinion polls, private public; from advisers, chosen or recommendeo, from pressures, spoken or unspoken, but front, himself and his office alone. Talk of national unity is nonsense when it comes either froM,8 leader like Mr Wilson who has sedulou.1 pursued sectionalism throughout his politica life, or from one like Mr Heath, who .11as cultivated to a point of abandon the possibilitY of his own occupation of office. Bagehot once observed that there was a kind of cumulative political wisdom which was the understood heritage of the British voter. It v.Ts nothing very precise, and nothing very specific, but it did represent a kind of feeling about hov; things were going, and about how they ought to go. It sometimes accepted and it sometimes rejected political leaders—Bagehot himself had the gravest doubts about an enthusiast like Gladstone — but it always detected the spurious in leadership. Bagehot — whom I have been re-reading in Mr St John Stevas's super,' edition—did not at all foresee the age in•whicn, political leaders would be invented, and woul° prefer to be invented, by advisers of all kinds, and especially by technical advisers, who would presume to some knowledge of what We nowadays call the media. In his time they and accepted victory or defeat accordinglY, neither too much elated by the first, nor to° downcast by the second. Only since the defeat of Sir Alec Douglas-Home in 1964 have we become accustomed to political leaders who are incapable of — and who are encouraged by their powerful advisers to enjoy being incapable of — distinguishing between survival of themselves and the public good. Of such material are Mr Heath and Mr Wilson. With such feeble claY must Britain face the trials ahead; unless she can find better. were,
Previous page
