Pre-autumnal crunch
Before I am finally done with the Market, or, rather, before the autumn crunch, I must make a final observation which, I hope, will not go unregarded by Willie Whitelaw, Francis Pym and Lord Carrington (who are currently viewed as the joint keepers of the Conservative party's collective soul). Assuming (as almost everybody now is) that in the upshot, when the Commons takes its decision 'on principle' on October 28, there will be about as many Labour pro-Market members of Parliament as there are Tory anti-Market members, the Prime Minister and his party managers will have to rely upon Labour's Jenkinsites if he is to get any sort of Parliamentary majority. To my mind, such a majority would be a pretty scruffy sort of majority for any Tory PM to have. But no doubt Mr Heath in the passion of his pro-Market fervour would prefer even a scruffy Jenkinsite majority to none at all. However — and this is what the Tory managers should be, and are thinking about : What happens to such a majority, even if it should exist on October 28, when the guillotine is moved to ensure the passage through the Commons of all the legislation needed before we are allowed into little Europe? The answer : That majority will melt away like snow in spring.
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