Portrait of the
'THE BEATING OF DRUMS, the blowing of horns and trumpets, the shouting of men, And trampling of horses, echoed and re-echoed through the streets': thus Eatanswill in Pickwick Papers. But 1964 elec- tioneering is more refined, and only charges of hired hecklers shook the campaign from its slum- bers. The Prime Minister's whistle-stop speeches were regularly drowned—usually by youths below Voting age; dockers were ejected from Mr. Wil- son's Southampton meeting: and only Mr. Grimond, circling the Celtic fringes of the land, was spared ordeal by heckling.
YET THIS WAS A WORDY ELECTION, With salvoes on growth rates replying to broadsides on incomes Policies. Issues refused to appear—education, land, race relations, defence and finance emerged from the cold storage of Smith Square files without Penetrating the electorate's indifference. Wil- sonian hints of 'political motivation' behind strikes and Hoggish comments on 'adulterers' (later to become 'moral failings') seemed likely to make for a lively campaign, but neither did. Slogans were equally ineffective, though Mr. Hogg's comment that Labour voters were 'honkers' was reminiscent of Lord Montgomery's 1959 claim that 'anyone who votes Labour must be barmy,' which has already received the acco- lade of inclusion in anthologies of quotations.
IT WAS AN EXCELLENT ELECTION. for the bookies, racist of whom had the courage to overcome their initial reluctance to take bets on issues of national importance: probably £1,000,000 was staked in all. A most unsatisfactory election for the Pollsters—three days before polling day the Daily Telegraph's Gallup forecast a Labour victory of fifty while the Daily Mail's NOP went the other Way—also by up to fifty seats. Astrologers Plumped for the Tories, the Sun backed Labour, and the Guardian ran a competition for readers to guess the winners of marginal seats. For TV the election was disastrous: party headquarters kept a tight grip of programmes, and Jimmy Edwards disappeared from the screen (though. Honor Blackman appeared for the Liberals).
'DEMOCRACY SUBSTITUTES ELECTION by the incom- petent many for appointment by the corrupt few': Yet in 1964 the incompetent many lost two former premiers—Churchill and Macmillan—from their candidates, and another sixty-nine Members de- cided not to fight again. Nevertheless, 1,730 other WOrthies were only too willing to chase after the 630 seats available. Tory candidates included 144 directors, ninety-one barristers and one engine- driver, while Labour sent into the fray '133 teachers, eleven directors, seven students and one Shorthand tfpist.
THE ELECTION ROUSED LITELE INTEREST ABROAD, except in France and Germany. The Queen re- turned early from an embarrassing Canadian tour for polling day. Sir Atec Douglas-Home's hints of an East-West nuclear pact brought shrieks from Senator Goldwater and denials from Mr. Butler, whose too-frank comments on the cam- paign rocketed Central Office blood pressure. Screaming Lord Sutch was refused nomination at Huyton (the Wilson seat), Sir Alec Douglas-Home revealed that he had forgotten to apply for a vote himself, and Mme. Tussaud's announced it had a Wax Shadow Cabinet at the ready. Bizarrest touch of all was the Sunday Telegraph's claim that Labour canvassers in the Midlands had met house-' Wives asking, 'What's Wilson done all the time he's been in power? He seems no better than the Tories.'
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