A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK T HE Rev. G. S. Woods, whose death
creates a vacancy at Droylsden in Lancashire, was one of the Free Church Ministers (among whom Silvester Home in the past was, I suppose, the most notable) in the House of Commons. Others are Mr. Gordon Lang and Mr. R. W. Sorensen. The resulting by-election may mean a great deal, for thotigh a Labour majority of 4,136 is something formidable for the Conservatives to tackle, it is no immense proportion of the total of nearly 52,000 votes cast at the General Election. It is less than the Liberal vote of 5,483, so that the question whether the Liberals will contest the seat, and if not how the Liberal vote goes, is likely to be of some importance. What the issues will be is difficult to predict—which shows how futile it is to be discussing the prospect, and the con4itions, of a General Election in October. Is steel nationalisation a live issue at Droylsden? Is the cost of living? Is Korea ? Is Persia ? And is party capital to be made for either side out of the two latter ? And what part, if any, are the Bevanites likely to play? Merely to ask these questions is to demonstrate how unpredictable even an impending by-election result, let alone a possible General Election result some months hence, must be. The straw polls, it seems, show the Con- servatives still in the van, but with a narrower majority over Labour than a few weeks ago. But even if that is an accurate estimate nationally there is no reason to suppose it is locally.
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