THE FUTURE OF CONSERVATISM
will turn away from the fantastic proposal introduced by Mr. E. R. Cochrane in last week's Spectator, in which he pleads for a New Conservatism, the distinguishing feature of which is that it must not be Conservative and should rally around the political banner of Mr. Herbert Morrison! The letter from Mr. Quintin Hogg is of greater importance.
As a Conservative who remains perfectly content with that simple identity, and feels no urge to qualify it in any way, Mr. Hogg's letter seemed to me singularly unconvincing, and raises the question what title, if any, has the Tory Reform Committee to bespeak the views of the Conservative Party? Why did they not bring up the very vital issue raised by their Amendment to Mr. Butler's Education Bill when that Bill came up for discussion at the Conservative Par* Conference held at Caxton Hall on October 7th? Why did they wait until the fifty-ninth minute of the eleventh hour to chuck it like a spanner into the machinery of a constructive and comprehensive educational measure, when they knew perfectly well (or should have done) that acceptance of the principle involved wbuld have the most far-reaching consequences which could not be confined to the teaching profession? Why were they prepared at a. minute's notice to render void the months of painstaking skill and patience by which the most able of educationists had arrived at an agreed measure?
There is much to be said against the proposal of equal pay for men and women ; for one thing it seems to ignore the additional financial responsibilities which properly belong to the men. In any case if it is to be admitted, there is no valid reason why it should be confined to the teachers, and it is to be lamented that it should have been brought forward as a measure of Tory reform lacking the necessary credentials to make it really representative of Conservative opinion.
In my submission Mr. Quintin Hogg has made an egregious error of judgement which it would have been more graceful to own up to than obstinately and impenitently to defend. After all the Conservative Party
exists, and opportunities offer within it for the freest discussion. There can be no objection to a Committee (even though it is self-appointed) teeking to shape Party policy, but when they show a complete disregard for the Party Executive, and don't think it worth their while to so much as consult the rank and file, it seems to me to savour of not a little impudence to trot out their proposals as measures of Tory reform. And why choose this moment of all others to add to the lamentable
political Confusion which exists? • Democracy is on its trial as never before, and in a political sense it is putting up a sadly bungling performance, and it comes as a shock to find a man of Mr. Quintin Hogg's undoubted talents so insistent to con- tribute in no small measure to the derangement of that solidarity to which swiftly moving events summon us w:th overriding peremptoriness.
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