A Spectator's Notebook
Fria one and only thing to emerge clearly 1 from the Commons debate on the brain drain this week was that even the elementary statistics
on the subject are lacking. It is, of course, pretty easy to score points against any government, -given that a substantial number of the best- educated citizens prefer to move away and live and work elsewhere. Mr Wilson was very good at making such points when he was in oppo- sition: and on Monday the Tories had much pleasure in quoting from his old speeches on the subject. But since all governments have proved incapable of arresting the exodus of talent, these political points are not worth much.
What is remarkable, though, is how little we really know about this exodus. How many people in this category are going abroad, and for what reasons, and what proportion go permanently and what proportion temporarily? The answers are not available. Yet the rapid growth of an international market in 'brains' is a fact of life. There is a committee sitting on the subject under Dr F. E. Jones, and perhaps when it gets round to issuing its first report some light will fall. Until then we are rather absurdly occupied dis- cussing the activities of scientists in a sadly un- scientific way. Could this perhaps convey some- thing about the conditions which keep the drain flowing?
Winning London
At this time I always feel sorry for the people engaged in trying to stir up public interest in local government. Theirs is uphill work. Emotions are not easily engaged, and public apathy may be reprehensible but is all too under- standable. In the days of the London County Council the average turnout at its elections was around 30 per cent of the electorate. This rose to 42.2 per cent at the only Greater London Coun- cil election so far held, but this was still poor. On the other hand, this habit of staying away from the polls gives a special edge to the specialists' analyses of the prospects. The contest becomes less of a test of public opinion and more a measure of the relative enthusiasm of minority groups. Thus, a National Opinion Poll in the Evening News the other day recorded a 4.7 per cent swing to the Tories in the current GLC campaign. Translated into votes, this would mean Tory control of London after thirty-three years out of power. But the Tory managers know that their real problem is to persuade nominal supporters that their votes could actually mean something. The London tradition of unbeatable Labour might carry the day.
Trust in Trouble Some social scientist, I imagine, is already hard at work on a study of the great National Trust row. Such innocent-seeming public institu- tions appear to be obedient to some law in these matters: a long period of tranquillity is almost inevitably shattered one fine day by a sudden storm of controversy, and the ferocity of the arguments is in direct ratio with the magnitude of the calm that has gone before.
Presumably the National Trust row reached its zenith at the extraordinary .general meeting of members last Saturday, and will now subside. A stranger might well have wondered, at many moments during this meeting, how a cause so admirable and an assembly of people so plainly well-intentioned could generate such fury and .-Jeven hatred (the word is not really too strong).
Yet such feelings are more or less usual in these organisational quarrels, when personal antipathies get entangled with more significant policy issues.
At any rate, the Trust's meeting went as well as could have been expected. All the grumbles and complaints brought together by the appearance of a 'reform' movement within the membership were aired, and the demand for a major inquiry into the Trust's workings was sensibly defeated. I said last week that the Trust had been damaged by all this commotion, and some evidence was given of actual financial losses incurred. No doubt much more could be assembled. On top of that, the 'reformers' have added to the cost by insisting on a postal poll of the 165,000 members, to test the clear defeat they suffered at the hands of the 4.000 or so who were present at the meeting. This will absorb the annual subscriptions of upwards of a thousand members. When that is out of the way, the best service Commander Rawnsley and his friends could do the National Trust, I'm sorry to say, would be to swear a vow of silence and let the work go on.
C of E What does membership of the Church of England consists of? I know many people who undoubtedly think of themselves as Anglicans and yet almost never enter a church. The more rigorous members of the C of E. certainly, would doubt the value or indeed reality of such adher- ence. On the face of it, there does seem some- thing odd about an organisation which can claim either 27,500,000 members or just over 2,000,000, depending upon which description of membership you care to apply.
Anglicans are going through a period of self- examination no less acute than that proceeding in the Church of Rome, so it is hardly sur- prising that a movement to separate the passive sheep from the active goats exists. Something of the sort appeared at the Church Assembly this week, when a proposal was made to define 'effective' membership as being restricted to regu- lar communicants. Understandably, the proposi- tion was shelved, in spite of some logical arguments advanced in its support. It is scarcely agreeable for the Church of England to have to emphasise that its numerical strength is (for example) less than half that of the readers of the Daily Mirror, or just over half the mem- bership of the Automobile Association.
Hitherto, the C of E has represented or sym- bolised a far larger segment of the national life than a mere head-counting on Sunday mornings could convey. Plainly, this is becoming less and less true, and the extent to which this role has contracted may well be of much wider signifi- cance than a simple falling-off in numbers. It's quite natural for some to wish to accept realis- tically'their situation as a small and relatively disregarded minority. Exclusiveness has its con- solations, even if it is alien to the amiable tolerance which has come to flourish inside the C of E
Apology Pending?
Since a known Communist has this week been entertained at the Carlton Club by the leader of the Conservative party, I wonder if that establishment will now withdraw its rebuke to the member who invited Mr Jo Grimond inside its sacrosanct Tory walls a few weeks ago? , J. W. M. THOMPSON
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