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At the Brighton conference the Liberals presented a mixture that has become familiar in the last few years — a quaint mixture of the antique and the trendy. With our second general election in a year now facing us, however, with the economy still locked in its deadly spin of crisis, with the possibility once more of enjoying a stable majority government, with the power to take at least some of the radical measures our country needs, it is necessary to be critical rather than indulgent of Mr Thorpe and his band of brothers.
It would be ungenerous not to acknowledge what Mr Thorpe has achieved since the resignation of Mr Grimond from the Liberal leadership. He was widely regarded, at the outset, as a dull successor, and many Liberal hearts were broken by the departure of their charismatic champion. But Mr Thorpe has already achieved far more than Mr Grim ond managed, even in his relatively long spell at the Liberal helm. To be sure, many have contributed to the most spectacular Liberal revival of recent years, not least Mr Trevor Jones and the grass roots radicals who have made pavement politics a by-word in Britain. But Mr Thorpe was the leader of the party throughout, and he handled the curious and often tense mixture of its newest recruits and its old guard with tact, sensitivity and skill. Thus there came about the Liberal breakthrough of last February: it was not all that Mr Thorpe hoped for, but it was a massive improvement on the party's pre-election position. Where do they go from here?
It is doubtful if they should go any further. Last February, if the Liberals could not precisely be said to deserve their generous treatment at the hands of the electorate, at least they could claim indulgence at the expense of the two larger parties, both of whom had consistently failed the people over the last ten years. The Liberals have now, however, had six months in the limelight, six months as a genuinely national party, six months in which to develop and put forward distinctive and convincing policies which would further establish their identity as a national party, and earn for them a real chance of power. They have used the time singularly ill, devoting all their energy to what they may believe to be a cunning ambiguity about their policies, but being careful never to take a stand save against something recommended by either of the two main parties which they feel to be unpopular. Such schemes as they have advanced for the improvement of the national condition — like their anti-inflation tax — have been academic where they have not been absurd: if there is to be an anti-inflation tax it can only be imposed on government itself as the principle agent of inflation. And all the energy, charm and guile of Mr Thorpe has been devoted to building a Liberal image rather than the outline of a liberal administration.
And the times are far too serious for this kind of activity. Both the Conservative and Labour Parties have produced serious manifestoes — that of the former the most distinguished for some time, both in its language and in its conception. But Liberal energy has been devoted principally to the question of coalition, and whether or not they would join one, and if so with whom, and whether they would require the removal of Mr Heath or Mr Wilson from the leadership of their respective parties as a prelude to coalition. At the same time the Liberals have been repeating their hope that the coming election will provide them at last with the upheaval in British politics Which will make them one of the country's leading parties and give them an opportunity to form a government in their own right. It is to be hoped that no such thing Will happen, and that the British electorate Will resist any temptation it may feel to indulge a mood of frivolity which could be compared only to that of the Danes, who recently returned in large numbers representatives of a party dedicated to removing income tax. The times, we repeat, are far too serious for any further experiments at the fringes of politics, or for allowing any further advance to a crew which, small as it is, is more motley in composition and instinct than either the Labour or the Conservative parties. Let the people, in the Coming trial, decide between the Right and the Left: neither is wholly satisfactory, but either has skills and reservoirs of hope and experience far exceeding anything Mr Thorpe and his colleagues can put on offer.
