Woodrow
In his article on parliamentary reform in this week's issue Alan Watkins suggests that if back- benchers wish to regain their lost power ind in- fluence the remedy lies not in procedure but in the conduct of the members themselves. I can think of no better demonstration of this than the performance over the past twenty months of Mr Woodrow Wyatt. Along with Mr Desmond Don- nelly he defied the threats and spurned the blandishments of his party leaders in his suc- cessful campaign to prevent the nationalisation of steel in Labour's first Parliament: and now that Mr Wilson has trumped the Wyatt-Don- nelly axis by raising his majority from three to ninety-seven, Wyatt has over-trumped by gather- ing—this time with Mr Christopher Mayhew— well over a hundred supporters in opposition to the Government's absurd East of Suez policy.
No doubt when the parliamentary Labour party does come to vote on the Wyatt-Mayhew East of Suez motion it will win the day, but the story won't end there. Taking a leaf from the Bevanites' book (and I'm sure Mr. Wilson won't deny the propriety of this) there will be all sorts of occasions for tabling amendments to. Govern- ment motions in the House itself. And on present form it looks as if any such amendments will attract more support than the Bevanites ever achieved.
Wyatt's own approach to politics is charac- teilsed by a sort of hard-headed innocence. This quality can lead him to oversimplify issues, some- times alarmingly. and to rush in where less inno- cent angels fear to tread. But he's nobody's fool, and usually right in substance if not in detail. Most of all, he has guts. In his dealings with the Prime Minister, he always seems to me to be playing the game known in America. I believe, as 'chicken,' in which the two contestants drive their cars at each other and the one to take evasive action first is the loser. Wyatt drives straight ahead, confident that Wilson will `chicketi. He always does. What we need is more Woodrows, on both sides of the House.
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