Government Whips, like Ministers, must no toriously take their successes where
they can
find them. But there can have been feW finer
'splays of their indefatigable optimism than the triumphant ITIPhant tones with which Robin Chichester-
-..ark announced to the House of Commons the
Committee Government majority of one in the have on the Resale Prices Bill. One would
n_ave thought he was reporting some feat of
British arms to an exhausted, nation instead of an embarrassing moral victory for his opponents. It was a a nasty moment for the Government, tod ,th e Opposition and the press were entitled taeir fun. Nevertheless the vote was tin. uotibtedly far more of a freak than has been isngeneral isnaustr_1Y conceded. The pharmaceutical 's need to maintain resale prices was ° yInething which a great many MPs who were in
general favourable to the Bill were inclined to ea.etfend, Many more who did not feel strongly ` ..I her
waY would certainly have turned up if deY had realised that the Government was in aaY danger.
Now
will of course they have been. alerted. There Presumably not 'be much difficulty with the Bill after the House returns from the Easter holiday. Everyone has had a fright. The narrow issue of the chemists has been decided. Ten days of quiet reflection on the general election will have intervened. What is absolutely certain is that the Government cannot abandon the Bill without being gravely humiliated. Ministers will not wish to inflict a timetable procedure on their own rebels in order to get the Bill through before the Budget, but one could guess they will do so rather than allow the Bill to 'go down to the delaying tactics of what will from now on be a rather small group.
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