Letters to the Editor
DYING LIBERALISM
should not find it difficult to be sorry Or Trimmer, were it not that his comments
nPon the political scene appear to me con- thtently to be actuated by spite, malice or, at best, a quite unjustified self-assurance. He tells us that Inverness has a Liberal tradition as favourable as any constituency north of Anglesey. An investigation of the figures then soon shows this statement to be
completely false. A Liberal candidate has rilot been returned in the division for twenty- 'nut years and, indeed, the Liberal Party has never won the seat in a three-cornered fight. Now, immediately following Trimmer's Prophecy that 'the end is near,' a Liberal has achieved the most sensational by-election result since the end of the war. I recognise th, at John Bannerman is a first-class candidate ,Cot that is not unusual amongst Liberals and Ile is certainly no better candidate now than ne was in 1950, when he finished bottom of ,tlic poll in Inverness, or in 1945, when he lost his deposit in the neighbouring Highland constituency of Argyll.
The result in Inverness confounds
irimmer's argument, for it confirms the tecent trend in Aberdare. Electors are more
to vote in considerable numbers for
candidates who are not the puppets of the Party machines. It may well be that the tponient of opportunity for the Liberal Party, 'or which many of us have waited so Patiently, is at hand.
Mr. Clement Davies can speak for him-
!cif, as he did so effectively in his letter `n Mr. Bannerman. Liberals, however, are grateful to him and tO his tiny band of Lcolicagues in the House for the effective way ul which they have maintained a coherent policy and an independent line in almost
Possible circumstances. The speech made
'LY Mr. Davies in the debate on Seretse Nhama was a noble utterance in the great Liberal tradition. The Liberals, and the Liberals alone, have maintained consistent °LPPosition to racial discrimination and the unPosition of policies upon native peoples.
Who, apart from the Liberals, has advo-
ceted effective devolution for Scotland and b°r Wales ? It may not maser to Trimmer „_tit it does matter to some of us that there "%add be a party in the State, dedicated to tdhc establishment of a property-owning ernocracy and to the achievement of an :cetera' system that ensures that Parliament I, properly representative of the people:— I 'Ours faithfully, MS R. M. DAVIFR
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