A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
AN article by Mr. Christopher Hollis, M.P., in the current issue of the New English Review .on personalities in the present Parliament, contains one interesting and unexpected suggestion. Discussing the future leadership of the Labour Party Mr. Hollis, who is a discriminating judge, writes: " My own tip for a future leader is Mr. Chuter Ede, and I don't think he would be at all a bad leader either. He has a Coalition past, but not so as one would notice it. He was then a blameless Under-Secretary. His Socialism, though doubtless sincere, is not obtrusive. He has an excellent sense of humour, and the names of the central authors in English literature and the central events in English history are familiar to him." That is all true, and a good deal more than that might be said in the Home Secretary's favour. No Minister im- presses more by sincerity, assiduity and a fundamental seriousness relieved constantly, as Mr. Hollis observes, by welcome flashes of dry humour. My own view is that Mr. Ede is too good a man to be selected as leader of the Labour Party—by which I mean that his outlook is too broad and fair to make him the son of partisan most of the Labour Party want. It may be added that the Labour Party leadership is not vacant ; that if it were there would be several aspirants ; and that of the various aspirants Mr. Ede would pretty certainly not be one He is not given to pushing—but he might in the end be pushed. * * * *
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