I WAS INTERESTED to see that, whereas Mr. Mac- millan's
television technique has vastly improved recently, partly no doubt as a result of assiduous training, Mr. Gaitskell's has deteriorated. Mr. Gaitskell's chief merit on television has always been his easy fluency ; he has been apt to use too many of the stock parentheses of politicians —If I may say so' and other mock-ingratiations- but he has always sounded professional and com- petent. Watching him trying to justify Labour's attitude to the Far East crisis, though, I had the distinct impression that his confidence is wearing thin. He had a good case, but he did not seem happy about it. And he made the elementary and silly mistake of turning away, from time to time, from the interviewer to talk direct to the camera. He may have imagined that this would lend weight to the views expressed, because the viewers would feel they were being addressed personally; but this viewer, at least, was not flattered by such attention. If you are talking to somebody, on television or anywhere else, you should talk to him—not to an unseen audience over his shotilder.
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