The Tory sherpas
The Conservative party exists in order to support Conservative MPs, whose prime political duty is to support their leader. The job of the leader of the Conservative party is to Win elections and to form Conservative administrations. It IS understood, but never said out loud and clear, that such administrations will support the landed, the farming, the Capitalist and manufacturing interests (roughly, unfortunately, in that order). The Conservative party has been a Party of men rather than of measures and of measures rather than of principles, whose members are bound together by interest rather than by faith. It is the party of People with a lot to lose. The party is an organisation devoted to winning elections by persuading enough people that they will do better under a Conservative than under any other administration. Conservative party conferences are rallies of electioneers. Just as it takes hundreds of humble but tough and hard-working sherpas to put a Climber on the top of Everest, so does it take thousands of devoted party loyalists to put a Prime Minister in Downing Street. Each Conservative party conference is a gathering " the officers and NCOs of these loyalists, assembled to Praise, and be praised by, their leader, whose servants they all are. The party is an organisation, not a movement, and its delegates are organisation men. Tory party conferences have come to bear a superficial resemblance to Labour party conferences in recent years, Partly because they take place in the same Blackpool and 13right0n Halls, partly because they are treated similarly by Press, radio and television, partly because they adopt a ,strnilar format of debates on topical issues, and partly oecause Tory organisers have tried to make their confer!flees as interesting as Labour party ones. Whenever the Labour party publicly tears itself to pieces, Tory party ?rganisers„ jealous of the publicity attendant upon Labour's strife, seek to stage comparable rows. From time to time, Tory delegates, forgetting their humble role of s,herpas in the ascent of Everest, demand that the leader!PT of the party heeds what they have to say and changes 'ne conference from being a rally of electioneers into an assembly of democrats. But the delegates represent nobody but themselves and their kith, and the organisers are only interested in rows of the stage-managed variety. The interests which the Conservative party supports are not represented, and do not raise their voices at Conservative party conferences. They steer clear of the hoi clamouring on the conference floors, but send their public relations men along to eye the proceedings and where desirable, to oil the wheels.
• Although the Labour party was invented by the trade unions to secure Parliamentary representation for socialists who found the Liberal party an unsatisfactory vehicle in which tO travel, it has long since forgotten its original purpose. It certainly does not regard its function to be that of supporting Labour MPs. It wishes instead to instruct them. It does not regard the chief job of its leader to win elections and to form a government. Instead, the leader's job is to express the desires of the party. The Labour party conference is very far from being a rally of electioneers, and has become very close to being an assembly of electors. Some of the interests which the Labour party supports are not only represented at Labour party conferences, but also constantly raise their voices at them and sometimes dominate them. Delegates at Labour party conferences do not see themselves, and are not seen, as organisation men devoted to winning elections. Not infrequently they will blithely cast aside electoral considerations and prefer principles to expediency. Despite the efforts of Sir Harold Wilson to make the Labour party the natural party of government 4nd thus to be more interested in power than in principle, it remains a movement of men more interested in being right than in ruling, more interested in winning arguments than elections, more interested in measures than men, and more bound together by faith than by interest.
The strength of the Conservative party is expressed in the weakness of its conference. It does not have to put up with an assembly of electors but instead can enjoy a rally of electioneers. How Mr Callaghan must envy Mrs Thatcher her party! And how she must cherish her sherpas, even as they idolise her!
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