Dr. Summerskill Abroad
It is perhaps too much to claim that Dr. Edith Summerskill's party political broadcast last Saturday broke the record for cliches, but there can have been few political speeches in which three observations of the character of the following occurred within a few minutes : We must all realise that the preservation of peace is just as worthy of a supreme effort as the conduct of war'; We are rapidly moving into a new age '; and The Labour Party is alive to the tremendous global forces.' Political speeches need not, of course, appeal exclusively to the intellect, and Dr. Summersk ill did succeed in generating something remotely approaching an idea. Stripped of its emotional trappings, what she said in effect was that one of the main obstacles (at times she almost implied that it was the only obstacle)'to peace was the prejudice of the Tory Government against the great social experiments in which the simple peoples of Russia and China are engaged. Stated like this, the proposition is self-evidently ridiculous. if Sir Winston were to meet Mr. Malenkov the teeming millions of Russia and China who were so interested in the British health service might hear of the- occasion, but they would not be in a position to have much influence on it; nor is it to be supposed that the two statesmen would get very far if Sir Winston were to begin by pointing out, by Dr. Summerskill's logic, that they were both human beings and that therefore there was no cause for disagreement between them. There were those before the war who believed that Hitler's alleged admiration for dog's and little children provided a similar basis for negotiation, but it was the fashion among the Left to call them rude names. Nevertheless, Dr. Summerskill's effort is not to be despised: the belief that all men except the Tories are naturally peaceful is one of the strongest weapons in the arsenal of traditional radicalism, and pointing out that foreigners sleep, eat and go to football matches just like us has always been unaccountably regarded by the Left as a contribution 'to political thought. The Conservative Party's interests, as well as Dr. Surtnnerskill's deserts, demand a merciless retort.
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