By-Election Prospects
The impending crop of by-elections is interesting on more than personal grounds, important though that aspect of them is. To get Mr. Harold Macmillan and Mr. Richard Law back to the House will mean a notable accession of strength to the Front Oppo- sition Bench, and so to a less degree will the return of Mr. Brendan Bracken, Mr. Ralph Assheton and Captain Peter Thorneycroft- if they are all returned. But of greater interest will be the com- parison between the by-election vote and the General Election vote in each case. After so sweeping a victory as Labour has won reaction always begins before long. Will it have begun by October, when the elections will take place on a new register? Is it true that many electors who voted Labour regretted the size of the majority when they saw what it was, and will probably not vote Labour again? That question will apply as much to the three Labour seats where vacancies have been created by promotion or death as to the five Conservatives. The figures may supply no clear answer at all ; but an answer will be worth watching for.
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