23 OCTOBER 1971, Page 6

The Socialists were happier at Brighton than the Tories and

h ave grown fonder of their leader. The Conservatives think their con ference was rigged. They wanted to debate immigration.

This year, as in previous years, The Spectator conducted random polls at both party conferences. Delegates were asked to complete identical formr, containing fourteen questions, and to add any comments they wished. Over 100 completed forms were received from the Labour Party conference, and over 300 from the Conservatives. The overall impression created by these replies is that the Labour delegates were in general satisfied with the way their conference went whereas the Tories were not. Where applicable we give last year's comparable figures in brackets.

Do you judge the conference to have been

very successful successful disappointing

LABOUR 42 (32) 47 (48) 11 (10)

CON

SERVATIVE 20 (23) 29 (32) 51 (45)

It is quite clear that the Conservative party conference managers have made no progress whatever in satisfying the delegates that their conferences matter at all. Indeed, by comparing this year's results with last year's, dissatisfaction has increased. One question asked was: What is your principal compaint about this year's conference? and typical Tory responses were "rigged," " too much stagemanagement," "poor standard of debate," "lack of debate, prevented by party's handling of sessions — obvious stage management," "very weak motions and inability to discuss the real issues," "Unity Lister too authoritarian," " undebateable motions," "stage managed debates." One comment was "Delegates seemed over-anxious to endorse the wishes of the leadership regardless of their own powers of thought to the point of subservience." Other Tory complaints included Mr Heath, the price of coffee, the floor too cold, the hall too hot, cheap jibes at Labour, and the weather.

Who dominated the conference?

The majority of Tories answered "No one." Of those mentioned by name Mr Heath came first (16 votes), followed by Mr Powell (12), Mrs Unity Lister (6), Sir Alec Douglas-Home (5), Mr Barber (5). Ten votes went to the Greater London Young Conservatives (who also figured among the delegates' principal complaints).

In the Labour party Ian Mikardo, the chairman, emerged as a clear victor (13 votes), followed by No one (10), Mr Wilson (7), the floor (6), the Left (5), Mr Jones (3) and Mr Jenkins (2).

Which do you consider the best debate? Both parties agreed that their EEC debate was the best of their conference; other debates came nowhere.

Who made the outstanding speech?

Harold Wilson came an easy first with Labour, followed a way behind by Wedgwood Benn and Roy Jenkins. The rest nowhere. The Tory answer is difficult, since many delegates filled in their forms before and during Mr Heath's closing speech: the three votes he received cannot he regarded as representative of Tory opinion. Excluding him, therefore, the Tory order was Enoch Powell (22 votes), Anthony Barber (20), Julian Amery (15), Tony Speight (12), Sir Derek Walker-Smith (8'), Lord Carrington (6), Sir Alec Douglas-Home (5), John Davies (4). Despite (or possibly because of) the vast length allowed to platform speakers, with the exception of the Chancellor they did not shine.

What was the most important point made by the conference?

The Labour party delegates considered the answer to be "party unity" in one phrase or another, followed by the vote against the Market and the vote in favour of public ownership. Conservative delegates were divided equally between those who thought along the lines "it is too easy for the leader to take the majority along with him" and those who approved of the Market decision.

What issue, not debated, ought to have been?

Here the Conservatives came in with a thumping answer. "Immigration and race relations "; followed by Rhodesia and Secondary Education. Despite an emergency debate on Ireland, several delegates regarded this as no debate at all but as one wrote in "Only the usual platitudes." Most Labour delegates answered "None."

What issue should the Party fight the next election on?

Apart from the Tory who said "it shouldn't," Conservative delegates split equally between those who wanted to fight it on their record, and those who wanted to fight it on their economic policies. No other suggestions received substantial support. Labour delegates were surprisingly happy to fight it on public ownership and more socialism; otherwise but to a much lesser extent, they plumped for

economic policies, and the Market. Do you consider the Leader to be

very satisfactory unsatisvery un• satisfactory factory satisfacton

% • X .

WILSON 51 (28) 35 (30) 9 (16) 5 (22) HEATH 39 (43) 32 (24) 13 (21) 16 (12) To be noted here is the greatly improved strength of Harold Wilson in the Labour party. Mr Heath is about holding his own.

In favour of joining

Yes No LABOUR 11 (14) 89 (66) CONSERVATIVE 63 (57) 37 (41)

Should there be a referendum?

LABOUR 44 56 CONSERVATIVE 17 83

A General Election first?

LABOUR 86 14 CONSERVATIVE 17 83

Has the Prime Minister a sufficient mandate

LABOUR 9 91

CONSERVATIVE 63 37 Have you read the Treaty of Rome?

LABOUR 73 27 CONSERVATIVE 67 33

Generally the figures reflect the polarisatitil of opinion. But it is noteworthy that the CO servative percentages have changed little sine, last year — and bear no relation to the 2; market vote in the conference hall itself. NV. have our doubts whether as many delegate, have read the Treaty of Rome as claimed have done. We note that the Don't Krul#: have disappeared from the two conferenco, The Conservative percentage hostile to Eurofol remains very steady — last year and 110 37% — and that the same percentage does ri believe that Mr Heath has a mandate. To Oa, who might suggest that the heads counted lt the hall are more accurate that our percerle ages, we quote the remark of one delega,l "The press reports on the Europe debate see' to have missed (deliberately?) the fact that1 third of those in the conference hall and av to vote on Europe in fact abstained."