WE HAVE HEARD a lot lately of the resentment felt
by trade union MPs against Mr. Gaitskell and
the people who are presumed to advise him. Though there undoubtedly have been stirrings, these stories are due, I think, more to political columns still having to be filled even in times of political apathy and to the very highly developed herd instinct of political correspondents than to anything else. So far as I can see, there is among trade union MPs more bewilderment about their true function and more anger about attacks upon their capacity than there is jealousy of Mr. Gaits- kell's friends. 'Crossbencher' in the Sunday Ex- press began it two or three weeks ago by a story about 'the lordly ones of Hampstead.' The lordly ones, he said, could be 'identified by a simple test, Each has Mr. Gaitskell's private telephone num- ber. Almost every Sunday evening he invites them to wine with him at his home in Hampstead. At these exclusive gatherings it is whispered the real policy decisions of the party are taken.' Cross- bencher' then named 'the seven who most fre- quently attend these parties within the party—Sir Frank Soskice, Mr. Gordon Walker, Mr. Jay, Mr. Healey, Mr. Jenkins, Mr. Crosland and Lord Pakenham.' I asked three of the seven about these Sunday parties. One said he had been to Mr. Gaitskell's house on a Sunday evening twice in the past year and on neither occasion had any of the others mentioned been present. The second had been once, and the third did not think he had been at all.
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