OWEN AND STEEL
`CONVICTION is an asset for any leader,' Dr Owen told the Council for Social Democracy four weeks ago in Southport. On his way to Southport Dr Owen had seen in the press that Liberal MPs were jubilant about the forthcoming report of the Alliance parties' joint commission on defence and disarmament. According to this leaked version of the report, it had been drafted in such a way as to exclude a replacement for Polaris. Dr Owen saw red. He determined to state his views about Polaris in that resolute form which, re- peated in Bonn last weekend, is said to have pre-empted and destroyed the report, finally released on Wednesday. 'I must tell you bluntly that I believe we should remain a nuclear weapon state,' he declared in Southport. He has given vent to similar views on many occasions in the past, inexpressibly refreshing when set beside the elastic formulae beloved of Mr Harold Wilson's spiritual successors, notably Mrs Shirley Williams and Mr David Steel. So the present row is not caused by a new dispute about policy: we already knew that the Alliance parties are divided on Polaris. It is mainly to do with relations between Dr Owen and Mr Steel. They could have reached agreement had they wished, for while Dr Owen would keep Polaris except in certain circumstances, Mr Steel would scrap it except in certain circumstances, and those two positions can be harmo- nised, as the commission showed, behind a `wait and see what the circumstances are' formula. Dr Owen knows so much about the detail of arms control that he could argue convincingly for anything, if only he wanted to, and Mr Steel is capable of arguing for anything which is politically expedient. Why then did the two leaders choose to disagree? Partly, perhaps, be- cause Dr Owen thought the Liberal un- ilateralists were going to humiliate him. But it looks also as though Mr Steel was very happy to see Dr Owen isolate himself. Let Dr Owen take the blame for splitting the Alliance, let Mr Steel win credit in his own party for restraining the hawkish doctor, and be seen by other Social Demo- crats, in whose company Dr Owen spends too little time, as the peacemaker who can unite the Alliance. Mr Steel would like to be sole leader of the Alliance. We hope he has not lured his rival into a trap, and that the electorate will prefer Dr Owen's arro- gant bluntness to Mr Steel's soft soap.
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