Pangs of Labour
Ry -Our Common Market Correspondent
F the Government is in trouble, it is nothing Ito the toils in which the Opposition is now caught over the Common Market question. Mr, Gaitskell was heard to exclaim recently, 'I wish they'd never invented the wretched thing,' and one sees what he means. It has brought him into embarrassing conflict with his fellow- Socialists on the Continent and opened him to charges of betraying the international movement. It has brought him to the strange situation of appearing to oppose the development of demo- cratic institutions like the European parliament. Worst of all it has made nonsense of his defence policy at the very moment when the party seemed, after years of schism, to have patched up a precarious unity—for whether one believes in `interdependence' like President Kennedy or a European deterrent like President de Gaulle, Britain will be forced to contribute something to it in terms of nuclear weapons.
Mr. Gaitskell can no doubt continue to dodge or ignore these embarrassments for the time being but the main issue is now upon him : should Labour oppose Britain's entry to Europe? Mr. Gaitskell seems to have decided early on that there were long-term advantages in going in and that since the Government was deter- mined to press on, Labour as an alternative government would have to come to terms with the Rome Treaty. He also took refuge in the comforting thought that whatever Mr. Macmillan could get past the Tory back- benchers would be innocuous enough to 'get past his own. He sat down on his fence and prepared to see what happened.
These tactics enabled the party to maintain a facade of unanimity and allowed a certain amount of tactical elbow-room for belabouring Mr. Heath. Mr. Gaitskell unfortunately has allowed himself to be jockeyed by the apparently ineradicable xenophobia and insularity of many of his followers into taking a more extreme position than he intended. At the same time the British negotiators are being forced to accept less and less in terms of safeguards for the Commonwealth. Terms are emerging which with a great deal of difficult persuasion may get past the Tories, but which Mr. Gaitskell, hounded by his own supporters, will find it difficult to accept without appearing to go back on his own state- ments.
It will be tempting for him to get relief from his difficulties by demanding an election on the Common Market issue, as he is now indeed pledged to do if the terms are 'unsatisfactory.' But, even supposing the Government were willing to oblige, could Mr. Gaitskell afford to fight art election on this point? It would seriously en- danger his personal position by splitting the Gaitskellite wing of the party. The left wing, by contrast, would remain solid and would advertise a convenient vacancy at its head which Mr. Harold Wilson could seize if Mr. Gaitskell looked like wavering. Furthermore, it is not at all certain in any case that Labour could possibly win such an election, for as soon as the terms are announced a gigantic government campaign in favour of the Common Market is waiting to be launched. Under its impact and with an agree- ment on the table, the opinion polls may look very different.
The truth is that the Labour Party by choosing the tactics that it did has lost the political initia- tive on the Common Market question. It is too late to regain it either by opposition or support.
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