Election reactions

As I see it

odowing is a random selection of comments on the election, mostly obtained by telephone. ;ue questions posed were (a) What is the main issue of this election? (b) for which party will you °W; (c) who will win? (d) how would you vote on an EEC referendum?

Clive Jenkins

ti./puld have thought the Common Market and „ e Labour undertaking to consult the British Pwei.o.Ple, and secondly of course rising prices, egleti is an issue obviously linked with v7Innion Market membership. How will 1 vote? „fle,11, I thought of getting a piece of paper and rutting a cross on it. What do you mean what'll

vote? You're having me on. Well I think it's

v„erY likely I shall vote for the Labour Party, of ,-k?urse I shall. I shall be voting for Mr Stallard in wrth St Pancras. Without any doubt, in spite he'll t tle fact my neighbour is Lord St David. Yes, .T11 Win, of course he'll win; a safe Labour seat. v ere will be a Labour majority of twenty-se

I believe •that we will have a referendum

that there will be a very substantial r"aitY for withdrawal from the institutions, v _egardless of any renegotiated terms. I would ote for immediate British withdrawal.

hen

Ro , Conquest

tell really thought about it very much. To it," You the truth I can't think of a main issue. s negative one — which party under their mrent leaderships is more likely to produce „(1),re,se ruin than the other, or produce ruin l'"fciter than the other. I've got a good seactionary anti-Common Market Labour MP, Labmalright. I'm not a pollster, but I suppose will win if the polls mean anything, but thlth a smaller majority. In spite of my voting at Way it doesn't fill me with endless glee.

Sir j

„. obn Gielgud

, wouldn't be able to say. I'm sorry I don't know g about it.

illjam Davis

;:'c'ted Conservative for the first time in my life strst February and 1 shall do so again. I'm a °11glY pro -Europe, and I like to think that I'm Nreealist on economic matters. I'm no fan of Ted e:th, but the Labour Party seems set on a h 'LrSe I have no wish to follow and I have an vot 'Y feeling that, in present circumstances, a

e for the Liberals is still a wasted vote. Michael Holroyd The main issue is what I call money. Other people have longer names for it. I won't be voting one way or the other, or any way unless there was an independent candidate — which there isn't actually. If the opinion polls go on as they are at the moment I think the Conservatives will win because the tendency, I think, has been in recent sort of elections for a massive anti-opinion poll vote in the last few days. If they go on predicting a Labour win — people love, it's a sort of love they have, an itch, to confound the opinion polls. So the best news the Conservatives could have, I would have thought, was a forecast of a Labour victory up until the last minute.

Lt-Gen Sir Brian Horrocks I was Black Rod for a long time — over fourteen years, and as Black Rod you have no politics, and 1 still take that into my civilian life with me. How I vote is entirely my affair, I never tell anybody because I feel that after fourteen years in that position — I'm often asked to open Conservative garden parties, and I always reply in the same way and I say that I am the only living man who's never attended a Labour rally and who's never opened a Conservative garden party. I've no intention of losing my political virginity at the ripe old age of seventy-nine.

A. L Rowse Well, I think it's fairly obviously two issues; it's runaway inflation which is going to ruin the country, and it's that inflation is mainly caused by the trade unions who are not going to be controlled, whoever wins. I don't think it matter's which party wins. The situation of the country is completely hopeless until there is a government of all the best men of all parties to save the country, as in 1940. I'm not interested in who will win, the country will go downhill in any case until there is a real sort of government that cares for the interests of the nation. I'm not interested in any of that sort of referendum rubbish: all I care about is really the saving of Wilson will come and we shall be absolutely, inevitably ruined. There wouldn't have been much hope under Heath, but there would have been a faint hope; but under Wilson, aided by the lunatic Wedgwood Benn, there is absolutely no hope. If there were to be a referendum I would accept the popular verdict — but no government, none of the three major parties, will ever have a referendum or accept a referendum because there is a great yawning gap between the politicians of all parties and the majority of the people; this is why the majority of us loathe and despise the majority of politicians — we simply return the compliment, that's all, because we're so used to them riding rough-shod over us and never regarding our wishes. So I don't expect there will be a referendum on the Common Market or on anything else, because the politicians in this country are frightened to give the people any power. I would vote against a referendum, but even if there is a referendum and the majority of the people vote against the Common Market, then we shall continue membership of the Common Market because it's a huge vested interest. Somehow or other, even if they do have a referendum — which they won't — they will find a way of weaseling out of it.

Jessica Mitford I've only been here a short time and — you know I live in America — and I just sort of don't feel qualified, so I'd rather not answer any questions.

Nigel Nicolson I think on this_ occasion I'd rather not say anything yet; I just haven't made up my mind, I want to see what develops and I really have no firm views at the moment at all. I don't know (how I'm going to vote) because it's too early in this particular election really to make up one's mind. In ten days' time I shall have come to a conclusion, but I've never known an election which has opened more tamely, more undecidedly on all sides. It's very, very strange. Of course it was started off by the inflation, but it's such a complicated subject, and even the experts can't agree on the figures. It can't stay like that I don't think, it must move on to something — possibly the European Community. Heavens knows which party will win. Going by the opinion polls — it looks like Labour. I'm afraid this is all very dull — you'd better cross it off the list, because at this stage I really have nothing firm to say.

Richard Baker Of course you realise that I'm a professional neutral. I think the unity or dissolution of Britain —I want a better word than dissolution — no, I don't mean that at all do I? I'm sorry, ask me another question. I can't tell you how I'll vote. I absolutely can't publish my political views. Who do I think will win? There again, I think really I'm out of this you know, honestly, I absolutely can't say anything about my political views can 1? Not as a newsreader on

the BBC, it wouldn't do for my political views to be publicly known. Say that by all means if it's of any value, but it's not really.

ingsley Amis I ve forgotten what the main issue is — it seems to me all confused. Inflation, I would say. I won't vote at all. I think Labour will win, with a Minority. Yes I would accept the popular verdict of a referendum, and I would vote against the EEC.

Iris Murdoch I can't bear it. Sorry, but I really don't want to talk about it.

Sir Neville Cardus

Well I'm not a politically minded person. I haven't made up my mind. I can't. I just don't /Tow what to do; whether to vote Labour or LiberaL I've got about a fortnight to decide haven't I? If I bet at all I would say I think Labour will get in by a majority of about twelve. I'm not so Sure about a referendum after all, we've got a House of Commons. The People of Britain elect their representatives. I don't think the voice of the public is the voice of God. The voice of the public is usually years behind: I think people are more intelligent than they were, say, twenty or thirty years ago, but I Still. think the House of Commons should decide: I'm not in favour of a referendum.

Robert Dougam (?h dear. I wrote a lovely piece about this last time, and then withdrew it. I see this election as Part of a long process. I doubt this election will th.,e_,Very different from any other election we've • _:au. for a long time. What this country's got to ?ecide is whether as individuals we've going to nave some say in our own in the way we run the country or whether we're going to be Pushed around by monolithic bodies. I think this is a great test for individualism against Monolithic forces. Obviously I'm thinking Principally at the moment of the unions. iney're setting themselves above the law.

I should like to vote for the middle of the road Party, I mean a social democratic party if we

had one; I think this is what we need in this country, and I think we need like-minded men from all parties to get together and really form a n.ew Party. It's going to take a long time, but I think that's what we need. I'm a moderate I auPPose you could say, and I do not like extremism on the left or the right. I would think Labour will probably get back with a majority °f twenty overall — something like that I should think. I hope very much there will not be EEC referendum; I think it would be a lainentable thing. It would create a very dangerous precedent, and would more or less .1 1, !an the end of parliamentary democracy. I wink it would be a hellish mistake. But if I were to vote in one I would obviously vote that we Should stay in the Common Market because I can't see any alternative; the Empire having already made other arrangements, as I well I,!.poiar, having just come back from Australia, New Zealand and goodness knows where else.

Lady Antonia Fraser No, I'm very sorry; actually if you look back at the last election interview you'll see that I said something like I never gave political views. If you check it anyhow, whatever the answer was before it remains the same. OK?

Mary Whitehouse I would have thought that it obviously is the question of inflation and prices. I also think that very much in people's consciousness is the question of the dominance or otherwise of the unions, and I think this has played quite a major part in Mr Wilson's strategy; that the pressure from that quarter to try to get a real majority in Parliament so that more of the left's plans can be carried through — I think this is one of the elements of Mr Wilson's thinking. And the pressure from the unions is very great in the situation. I shall vote Tory, but I'd like to say I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool Tory, I have voted Labour in my time, but I shall certainly vote Tory this time: not least because the letters that I've had

from the three party leaders and the confabs I've had with them convince me that the Tories are the most likely of the three parties to act effectively in the field in which I'm so much -concerned; -We are very committed to getting on the Statute Book the Indecent Displays Bill, and the only party which is committed to that in its manifesto is of course the Tory party. I suspect it will be a very closely run thing, and I wouldn't be surprised if there is a minority government again. I think I would vote for the Common Market.

Beverley Nichols I would say the main issue is splitting the nation in half. I will vote Liberal. Nobody will win — I very much hope that the Liberals will get an increased vote because I think they are the only people who are not irrevocably associated in people's minds either with one class or another. God forbid that there should be a referendum, but I should obviously vote for Europe.

Roy Strong Neither my wife nor myself really ever publicly discuss anything political because I think anybody involved in the Arts should be involved only in the Arts and I never want the Arts to be muddled up with politics, and the other thing is that I am, as Director of the V and A, a civil servant, and it really is against the rules for me to make any comment of that sort.

Denis Wheatley It's very difficult to say. Inflation is obviously the thing. The checking of inflation. I always vote Conservative, I always have. I would vote to stay in the Market; we've got to, like it or not.

Professor A. J. Ayer

I suppose inflation is the main issue. I shall probably vote Labour, I haven't fully made up my mind. I can't say who will win — I should think the result probably won't be very different from the last time. I think if anybody gets an overall . majority it probably will be Labour, but it might quite easily be a repetition of February's election. I'd vote in favour of staying in the •EEC. I've always been a supporter of our joining the Common Market, more for political than for economic reasons though. I think it's a move away from nationalism.