Election confusion
Sir: The confusion of which Patrick Cosgrave complains in his review of The British General Election of 1970 (1 May) resides not in the book but in Mr Cos- grave's own private world. A com- parison of what the book actually says with what Mr Cosgrave avers it says, shows clearly that précis is not his strongest talent. . . we are told on page 335', writes Mr Cosgrave, 'that organi- sation did not win the election for the Tories: the small voice of conscience, however, whispering on page ninety-three that it "possibly tipped the balance".' No such statement as that made by Mr Cosgrave appears on page 335. On page 336 the authors, after say- ing that there was no evidence in the voting figures that the Con- servatives fared better where they put in special efforts go on to add 'yet the margin of victory was so small that we cannot exclude the possibility that in 1970 organisation did tilt the balance'.
Not content with this error, Mr Cosgrave continues: 'On page 95 [we are told] following private poll- ing by the parties is of no great significance, but on page 189 it is, "of major significance".' On page 95 the authors, after discussing the situation facing the Conservative Central Office after 1964, actually say 'Thirdly, the Conservatives had failed fully to harness modern elec- tioneering techniques and. indeed, had fallen behind Labour before the 1964 campaign in the use of private market research.
'From /965 onwards a series of measures was brought in to deal with these problems,' and on page 189 . . the advances in private polling, at least on the Conserva- tive side of Smith Square, were of major significance.' (My italics.) How Mr Cosgrave can find any in- consistency in these passages is beyond comprehension. Lack of space precludes a full discussion of all Mr Cosgrave's solecisms, and more especially of his egregious non sequitur about the effects of Class and the result of the June election. Suffice it to say that, given the standards he dis- played in his review, it will, I fear, be a very long time before the world of academic political science and his private world actually meet.
• Hugh Berrington Department of Politics, The Uni- versity, Newcastle upon Tyne
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