Sucking the Chairman
The Speaker's is not the only presidential chair tinder discussion, as it happens. When Perna- trl, ent adjourned for the summer recess it was fairly -certain that Mr. Emanuel Shinwell's re- election as chairman of the parliamentary Labour Party would• be opposed. Presumably, in ' the Present precarious situation, an appeal will be made to malcontents not to rock the boat: but tl see no particular reason why it should sue- ` „ e.ed. Sacking the chairman will make no dlerenee to the Government's voting strength. , Dissatisfaction with Mr. Shinwell comes from !''''0 principal sources: the left wing and the !Make of 1964. Where these two 'groups overlap, ,111e dissatisfaction is particularly strong. I gather th.at it stems partly from Mr. Shinwell's habit t. seeming patronising at party meetings to any MP below the age of fifty. and also from his
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appearance of being Mr. Wilson's emissary rather than a faithful servant of the parliamen- tary party. Mr. Shinwell, in short, seems to many MPs to see his task as bringing word from on high to the faithful: whereas he ought to be doing the reverse.
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