Election and Coalition
Both Liberals and Labour, announcing decisions already in- evitable, intend to contest the next general election as independent parties. It may be taken as certain that the Labour Party Conference, with whom the ultimate decision rests, will endorse the statement issued by the executive committee last Saturday. In the Liberal manifesto it is explicitly said that Liberal Ministers (unless they act independently of their party) will not join in any appeal to the country by a National Government, and that they will not be committed to join any National Government afterwards. Neither of these statements is incompatible with Liberal Ministers remaining in the Government during the election period ; nor is there anything in the Labour Party statement which requires the early withdrawal of Labour Ministers from office. What is certain is that there can be no agreed coalition declaration of policy, and no coupon election. It has to be recognised that there are no precedents which can be applied in the next election. There can be no party attack on the past record of the Government, for all parties supported it. There can be none of the usual recriminations between party leaders who, as the Labour executive points out, will be governed by the " dignity and good feeling " befitting colleagues who have been acting to- gether. Party statements in all cases may well be issued by the parties themselves rather than by their leaders—can we imagine Mr. Churchill, while the war with Japan is on, committing himself to an exclusively Conservative party manifesto? It may be granted that there are some difficulties to be overcome, but none comparable with that of scrapping the National Government at a moment when the greatest national and international problems remain to be solved. A party election there must be, but that need not involve the abandonment of national Government or the sacrifice of Mr. Churchill's national leadership.
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