I Told You So
What, then, should the Tories' theme be be- tween now and polling day? First, the main burden of their attack should be, not on the events of the past eighteen months (which the polls show, have hardly shaken the public's confidence in the Government) but on the inevitable prospect for the next eighteen months (prefaced, of course, with the conventional 'if Labour wins'): viz., in- creased taxation, higher mortgages, rising unem- ployment, prices catching up with earnings, and, in general, mounting economic difficulties. Not only is this a more fruitful line of attack; it will also enable Mr. Heath, in the likely event of a Labour victory, to develop a powerful 'I told you so' line in the months ahead.
Second, as a positive theme, Mr. Heath should go nap on Britain and Europe. Unlike the cost of living this is a real issue that divides the two parties, certainly since H. Wilson's utterly de- plorable speech a few days ago; the polls show that the bulk of public opinion is on Mr. Heath's side; and, perhaps most telling of all, it is an issue of the first importance about which Mr. Heath is himself deeply and emotionally involved. In a very real sense it is Ted Heath's equivalent of Sir Alec Douglas-Home's nuclear deterrent issue—and look how well Sir Alec did with that when all the polls said hardly anyone was in- terested in it. After all, it is the two or three voters in a hundred who will decide the whole election.
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