Shadow and Substance
By BERNARD LEVIN
HAS, I asked in this space a few weeks ago, Mr. Gaitskell had it? And if so, I went on, what pre- cisely is it that he has had? I came, after profound meditation, to the conclusion that he had not, or at any rate not yet. I am still of that opinion, but acting on information recently received I must say that if I were in his place I wouldn't much mind if I had had it, whatever it was. The elections to the Parliamentary Committee provide much matter rr a May morning, and many gallons of ink have already been expended by citizens trying to explain the forty-three extra votes Mr. Wilson collected between his bid for the leadership and his selfless decision not to deprive the party of his front-bench services. I would like here to east a little light on the precise mechanics of these elections, in the hope that in the light thus cast InY reasons for guessing that Mr. Gaitskell is feeling rather more gloomy about the situation may be more clearly seen.
After the election for Leader, a number of back-bench members of the Labour Party got together to do a little organising, in the interests )(,,E sanity, for the elections to the Parliamentary -,?.rtlmittee. They had two chief targets—Mr. 114 and Mr. Lee (they would have had three, but Mr. Greenwood had earlier obliged by an- nnuncing that he would not be a candidate). There were also two 'natural' vacancies, caused "Y Mr. Robens's leaving Parliament nr the Coal Board, and Mr. Brown's election as Deputy L cadet, with its concomitant ex-officio seat. There was much anxious discussion of candidates whom those members loyal to Mr. Gaitskell wished to see supporting him on the Committee, and eventually a list was drawn up. Now this list had to be, by the rules of the election, of precisely the right length; for ballot papers containing fewer than twelve votes are as invalid as those ,e,°Iltaining more. When it emerged from the rtoke-filled rooms, however, the job was only was done; the names having been selected, there of still the task of persuading enough members i the Parliamentary Party to vote for them— r _°r all of them, that is, since individual variations un the list would rob it of all its purpose. The task of canvassing support was obviously a delicate one. It was therefore left in the main to tw 0 `soled' loyalists who would not arouse hostility in the middle, and who could certainly be accused of being members of the mythical Hampstead set.' From time to time, these two tillers of the ground would report that all was going well, and that support was being promised on all hands; further help in canvassing was declared unnecessary.
Then, lo I nominations closed. And it was seen that the two messengers had allowed themselves to be nominated, and had thus connived at the collapse of the entire plan; for it must be obvious that if there are more loyalists than there are vacancies for them, the resultant spread of the vote automatically makes it impossible for it to be concentrated where it will do most good. The upshot, then, was that although such sound new- comers as Mr. Houghton, Mr. Michael Stewart (who had already been a member for a short time, having been 'co-opted,' as last year's runner- up, to fill the vacancy left by Mr. Robens) and Mr. Ray Gunter got on to die Committee, a number of other loyalists did not, and the two chief disloyalists got back. It is true that Mr. Wilson's total of 124 was probably too large, and certainly too deliberate, to assail; after all, no- body voted for him just to fill the twelfth place on the ballot paper. But there is no doubt at all that a little self-restraint on the part of those organising the loyalist vote—and they, remember, were chosen as the soundest and solidest mem- bers available for the job—could certainly have defeated Mr. Lee. They did not get very many votes, but if those they did get—indeed it would not have needed all their votes—had gone to, say, Mr. Blyton, or Miss Bacon, or Mr. Mayhew (and where else would they have gone?), Mr. Wilson's isolation on the Committee would have been complete. Now this is a cautionary tale, for Mr. Wilson and Mr. Lee will be swamped in any case by loyalists. The point, however, is not that they are back on the Committee; it is what conceivable hope can there be for the Labour Party if its soundest men can behave like this? After the Scarborough conference in October I recorded the remark made to me on the morning after the defence debate : 'If he is at the Despatch Box making the same faded jokes next Budget Day,_ then there is something seriously wrong with the Labour Party.' Well, there is something seriously wrong with the Labour Party. What is seriously wrong with the Labour Party is its insane desire for compromise at all costs; many of the people who voted for Mr. Gaitskell in the election for Leader, but for Mr. Wilson in the election for the Parliamentary Committee, did so out of a belief that bygones could somehow become by- gones, that the party needs both Gaitskell and Wilson, that if sufficient care is taken by those who draft the party's pronouncements they can be made so entirely meaningless that all members can support them in good conscience. The Left have never believed this; in the wrang- ling over the defence platform that went on before Scarborough, they were at pains to point out that the conference was going to, and ought to, vote on whether or not it wanted the Labour Party to have a unilateralist policy. But the minute the conference was over, the whisper- ing from the Centre began; a compromise could be found, given sufficient good will, to unite the party even on this subject. Indeed, Mr. Green- wood went so far as publicly to announce the details of the compromise formula which he believed could do just this, apparently unaware (though he had earlier shown himself very clearly aware) that the dispute in the Labour Party was not, fundamentally, concerned with the hydrogen bomb at all. The simple truth is that, although there have always been two Labour Parties, want- ing different things and pursuing different poli- cies, they have now reached the point where the differences between them are so great that they cannot continue to pretend that they are. one. And yet still there are voices raised insisting that they can be kept together. Of course, the electors won't actually vote for either, but that is a small point; Mr. Foot shall lie down with Mr. Gaitskell, and Mr. Cousins with Mr. Brown, and all will be well.
'It must be getting worse—he said, "Good morning, Chancellor."'
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