The Erdington Election It would be foolish to draw too
clear-cut a moral from the result of the Erdington by-election, for it is evidently the sum of more than usually confused forces ; and if it had any single significance, the Government's 6,000 majority seems to leave no doubt what it is. It is, however, worth while pointing out some interesting features of the election. The total poll was only 400 less than at the General Election, and there has evidently been no increase of political apathy in the electorate. The Labour vote increased by 3,000 and was more than in the peak year of 1929, when Labour won the seat in a three-cornered contest ; this, in view of the confusion in the Labour Party at the moment, is surprising. It is even more surprising that such a vote was polled by a Labour candidate who fought on a pacifist programme in a constituency which has directly and largely benefited by the rearmament programme, which he concentrated on attacking. As at Derby people voted against their immediate interests, unless, indeed, as is possible enough, they voted for the party's policy of rearmament rather than for the candidate's policy of cutting arma- ments down and down.
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