A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK , T HE Spectator goes finally to press
on Thursday morn- ing. Organisers of by-elections and similar fixtures would therefore oblige by putting their climax not later than Tuesday. Handsworth omitted this courtesy, and it is there- fore only today that I can comment on Sir Edward Boyle's victory. It was sufficiently striking. At the General Election in February the Conservative won by 5,472. Sir Edward, towards the close of the contest, permitted himself to predict that he would raise that figure to 7,000. Actually he raised it to 8,231 on a smaller poll than in February, the Labour vote falling from 18,774 to 13,852. This, of course, is only a single by-election. But it is not the only one. There has been Scotstoun and there has been Oxford, and in both cases the Conservative majority was substantially increased. Assume these results to be typical, and it is plain that a General Election would put the Con- servatives in office, and with a much safer majority than Labour subsists on today. What effect the realisation of that will have in Downing Street is problematic. There is something to be said for postponing as long as possible an election that looks like spelling disaster (particularly as there seems to be no more danger of nine Liberal votes in the Opposition lobby), and just as much for getting the thing over before the swing to the Right has gone further. The Government has not much in the way of visible electoral assets. The bright idea of . an "Up with Controls and Down with the Lords" slogan does not grow brighter with contemplation.
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