WARDS OF THE STATE Sin.—Mr. Charles Curran has a lively
imagina- tion and his defeat at the lag election has undoubtedly stimulated it. But his hatred of the obstinate proletarians who bloaked his path to Westminster begins to colour his political think-pieces a little too much.
It is simply not true that the Labour Party built up its electoral support exclusively in the moron belt. Nor is it true that all the morons are concentrated in the lower income groups. Most of the people he sneers at rarely bother to vote at all, in spite of the fact that they are the main beneficiaries of welfare legisla- tion. And in my experience—which covers both canvassing and being a candidate—they are just as likely to vote Tory as Labour.. For these arc the votes that can be had for a handshake and a little personal service.
People like this did not build up the Labour movement nor do they constitute anything but an infinitesimal part of its membership. They may hold union cards but they are most emphatically not trade unionists. And far from being a solid source of support for the Left, their inarticulate assumptions are usually far to the right of their occasional voting behaviour. Mr. H. J. Eysenck demonstrated this in his Psychology of Politics. And was it - not Karl Marx who described these political problem-children as lumpenproletarians over a century ago?
If Mr. Curran learns to discipline his imagination with facts he maw continue to delight, if not persuade, his readers. Hatred alone is not only pernicious: it makes damned dull reading.—Yours faithfully, RAYMOND FLETCHER 103 Cowbridge Road East, Cardiff '
Previous page
