India na Urti verSiti MAR 0 9 1964
Mr Hart's, ump
Some observers say that Senator Gary Hart speaks through his nose rather more than he used to. This extra nasality gives his voice the faintest twang of Presi- dent Kennedy's, much as Mr Benn now aspirates his 's's in search of a Churchillian echo. Like other things about both men, this improvement on nature seems to be carefully calculated and surprisingly successful.
Mr Hart's triumph in New Hampshire could have been foreseen with the blessing of only a little hindsight. The mighty American media do not care for a one-horse race, par- ticularly when there is a sitting President who has declared his intention of standing again. Mr Mondale, the overwhelming favourite for the Democratic nomination, is not an exciting candidate (indeed, at one time he himself flinched from the appalling tedium of a Presidential campaign); he is also the candidate of organised labour, of the party machine and of big money. None of these somewhat bland characteristics was likely to endear him to New Hamp- shire, which has long ceased to be a rugged rural state; the frontiers its voters are on are more often those of the new technology; many commute into the science parks and universities of the Boston conurbation. The real trouble is that Mr Mondale does not look like a man tremendously likely to outflank the wiles and charm of President Reagan.
Mr Hart is certainly no dazzler. He is said to be a wooden campaigner and to inspire little enthusiasm among his supporters. But then much the same was said of Jack Ken- nedy in 1960 when Adlai Stevenson still pulled the crowds. Mr Hart's priceless asset is that he is both old enough to be Presi- dent and young enough to be the incumbent President's son. And voters in other Democratic primaries may well bear that in mind.
The Hart 'platform' is one of those lightweight constructions, which can be shifted to more favourable ground with minimum effort. But his calculations are clear: he must keep a grip on the issues of the moment among Democratic activists the nuclear question, women's rights and acid rain — without losing a wider appeal to the working-class voters who traditionally vote Democrat but will cross over in a Presidential election for a man who seems competent and patriotic. Mr Hart does not attract the 'idealistic' young in the sense that Mr George McGovern did and still does, and Mr Hart probably does not mind about that. Under the packaging of 'new leadership', he offers a kind of liberalism (in the American sense of the word) which will become increasingly 'realistic' and 'hard-nosed' if he manages to get closer to the nomination. He is at worst a good each- way bet. At best, he might be the only man who could defeat Mr fn.
February is scarcely over, and New Hampshire is not the United States. Besides, the new rules in the Democratic Party make it more difficult for a dark horse to come from nowhere in the final furlong. All the same, Mr Reagan does begin to look just a little older.
As is inevitable with any force designed to ensure the security of Northern Ireland, the Ulster Defence Regiment is controversial. On a few occasions, as at pre- sent, one or two of its members have been charged with acts of sectarian violence, and these occasions provide the pretext for at- tempts to undermine the Regiment's posi- tion. The Dublin Government, which hopes to use the New Ireland Forum to embarrass the British Government, wants to under- mine existing security arrangements in the North in order to propose a pan-Irish security system. Hence its recent criticism of the Duke of Edinburgh's visit to a UDR barracks. At the same time, Dublin wishes to assist Mr John Hume's SDLP against the rise of Provisional Sinn Fein. Mr Hume has condemned the UDR for sectarianism. Both the Government of the Republic and the SDLP present the UDR as an obstacle to cross-border cooperation and to a recon- ciled Roman Catholic population. These pressures come at a time when the Chief Constable of the RUC, Sir John Hermon, is rumoured to want more control of security by the police, an increase in the police establishment, and a consequent reduction in the power and scope of the UDR. If these rumours are true, Sir John might, quite by accident, find himself encouraging a weakening of security in the province.
Along with prisons, the security forces of Northern Ireland are the most obvious targets for those who are unfriendly to the present consitutional position. Until their abolition on orders from Westminster in December 1969, the B Specials, the predecessors of the UDR, were presented as the main barrier to good order and good relations between Protestant and Catholic. The truth is rather that the B men con- stituted the body which knew the province best and which, by applying that knowledge in immense local detail, made the life of ter- rorists extremely hard. The UDR performs the same role, with the additional skills which come from its being the longest ac- tive serving regiment in the British army. If it is now the case that the UDR is only two per cent Catholic (it was once 17 per cent) this is because Catholic UDR men have been murdered and intimidated by the IRA — a fact which pays tribute to the regiment's importance. The UDR should, if anything, grow, and Mr Prior should publicly emphasise its importance and cut off the current talk of its reduction.
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