A Spectator's Notebook
SINCE HIS RETURN from his Com- monwealth tour the Prime Minister has broadcast four times—three of them on television. The contrast with his earlier, fumbling appear- ances has been most marked— partly because, by getting people to ask him questions, he has escaped from the tor- ture of the teleprompter, a device he has never been able to master; partly because he has ac- quired a confidence on the tour that had not been demonstrated earlier. If this presages an end to the remote and uncertain leadership of the past year—if he now begins to take charge—the effect on his audiences may in the long run be considerable. How, then, is the concept of broad- casting 'balance' to be maintained? Giving the Labour Party equivalent time would obviously not redress it, because the Government desper- ately needed these broadcasts to enable Mr. Macmillan to cash in, politically, on the bene- ficial effects of his tour and to restore the con- fidence of his followers after Rochdale. Mr. Hugh Gaitskell, on the other hand, might reasonably prefer to avoid public appearances at the moment and to wait for a more suitable occasion. When his own party next faces a crisis, he would no doubt welcome the opportunity to try to rescue it with four broadcasts—three of them on television.
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