A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
IAM not much impressed by the contention that the Democratic successes in America give -Labour here legitimate ground for counting on a safe victory at the next General Election. It is true that on the whole Democrats in the United States stand to the Left of Republicans, just as Labour here stands to the Left of Con- servatives. But the conditions are so totally different that there are really no lessons to be drawn from a comparison. The main question here is likely to be whether the British people want more national- isation or less. The American people, Democratic or Republican, want none at all, reconciled though they may be on the whole to the Tennessee Valley scheme. And though most of our Left are keeping studiously silent about Mr. Henry Wallace, it is worth remembering how much so many of them loved him not long ago. The fact is that conditions in different countries resemble each other too little for the record of one to justify political predictions about another. Otherwise the ardent spirits who rest their hopes on Mr. Truman's success might reasonably be asked what moral they draw from General de Gaulle's
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