Anything that needed to be said about the three by-elections
so far declared, and a good deal more, was said in last Friday's Forum by two M.P.s and two ex-M.P.s who, considering that the talk was supposed to be unscripted, were remarkably well equipped with totals, and percentages down to decimal points, calculated to enable each speaker to make the points his political orientation demanded. Quite frankly I didn't think it amounted to much, though Col. Walter Elliot was logical and cogent as usual. Before the half hour was half over they were going over and over their old arguments and running after each other's tails like squirrels in a cage. The plain fact is that apart from Gravesend, on which The Spectator com- mented last week, there is no decisive lesson to be learned from the by-elections at all. At Howdenshire, a Conservative seat, the Conservative majority was substantially increased. At East Edin- burgh, a Labour seat, the Labour majority was very slightly re- duced. Plainly there is nothing in the nature of a landslide, hardly anything in the nature of a pronounced trend. Camlachie will be worth watching, but that is not likely to come till after Christmas.
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