LORD HAILSHAVS interim solution of the dispute in Bournemouth's Conservative
Association—the `primary' election to decide whether Mr. Nigel Nicolson should be readopted—is a reasonable one. Mr. Nicolson has said that he will leave quietly if the vote goes against him; so far Major Grant and the rest of the Executive (who rather surprisingly decided to stay in office even after their debacle over Major Friend) have not said that they will resign if he wins, but it is to be pre- sumed that they will. Some interesting by- products of the election-within-an-election are already being turned out; what steps is the Association taking—indeed, what steps can • it take—to ensure that the ballot is confined to Conservative,s? How, for the purpose of an un- precedented move of this kind, is a Conservative defined? If Mr. Nicolson wins, will we see the Executive (or ex-executive) running an unofficial candidate against him, or at any rate supporting one running under his own steam? How they must look back in sorrow on Sir Henry Page-Croft! But wherever the story may yet take us, I doubt if it will produce anything as memorable as the remark made by Mr. Christopher Shawcross in announcing the end of his own brief excursion into the Bournemouth Conservative arena. 'I am not a member of the Conservative party,' he said, 'which I find from an article by Lord Hailsham is an essential qualification for any candidature.'
PHAROS
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