Labour's Record
These criticisms still hold—though in the course of this election campaign they have lost some of their force. Mr. Bevan, since reconciled to being second string, has been moderate. Internal differences have been smoothed over. A pro- gramme, or the semblance of one, has burgeoned. The party is in a healthitr state than it has been for a long time.
Nevertheless, the party's record is not encourag- ing. If Labour returns to power there will prob- ably be a happy period in which everybody in the party works together. and in which Conservatives wonder why they were so unnecessarily alarmed. But, sooner or later, a Labour Government would be faced by a massive contradiction—that it is supposed to hold the ring between employer and worker, yet is too intimately connected with the trade union movement to be fair in the contest even if it wanted to be. Conservative Govern- ments, admittedly, suffer from their links with the employers' side, but at least these are com- pensated for by the absolute necessity of keeping a substantial proportion of workers continuing to vote Tory. The safeguards to prevent Labour allowing a new outbreak of wage inflation are very much weaker.
There remains the possibility of registering a protest against both parties. For reasons which have been discussed in an earlier issue, there is no way under the present electoral system by which a negative vote can be made effective. The man who abstains will find himself classed with the lazy and the sick : the voter who spoils his ballot paper, with the ignorant and the lunatic. It is necessary to vote: and the only reasonable protest that can be made is to vote Liberal.
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