Political Commentary
Blancmange
By DAVID WATT A s a shining example of tribulations bravely LA borne there Is still nobody on the political scene to beat Mr. Selwyn Lloyd. After the final catastrophe of his dismissal from the Chancel- lorship his wellwishers (and he has-many, for he is a man of real honesty and humility) hoped that his troubles were over and that even if he were finished in high office, he had at least turned the other cheek to colleagues and to oppo- sition for the last time.
It was not to be. The Selwyn saga did not end there and the latest episode finds him in his familiar role—the little man with the short straw. The chapter opens eleven months ago when Mr. Lloyd was axed in the great ministerial massacre of July 13. There were Tory back- benchers in Parliament who were untactful enough to suggest that Mr. Lloyd's pay pause might not have been the most popular or suc- cessful thing the Government had ever under- taken but that since it had been the Govern- ment's policy and had been heartily endorsed by the Prime Minister throughout. Mr. Macmillan had not behaved like a gentleman. In fact, there were so many Tories of this mind that it became necessary to explain to the 1922 Committee that poor Selwyn was a tired. spent man who had done the State some service but was now past holding down the job. Three months later Mr. fain Macleod, the party chairman, was telling the Conservative Conference amid cheers that this tired, spent character was just the fellow to form a one-man commission to look into the present state of party organisation and tone up the machine for the gruelling election course.
Some of Mr. Lloyd's ex-colleagues (those who survived) did not make many bones about this appointment in private. An inquiry had been recommended by the party's Advisory Commit- tee on Publicity and Speakers and would no doubt be useful enough in'its own right. But its political usefulness would be gratifyingly in- creased if it could be made to placate those throughout the party who felt Mr. Lloyd had had a raw deal and if it kept Mr. Lloyd harm- lessly occupied (and incidentally well away from Westminster) during the critical winter months. The only possible drawback to this brilliant scheme was the faint chance that Mr. Lloyd would actually discover radical faults in the party machinery and use them to discredit the party chairman. Mr. Macleod, who was widely believed to have played a major part, with Mr. Butler, in bringing about Mr. Lloyd's dismissal.
[his chance seemed to many people to be steadily increasing through the appalling winter and spring. As Mr. Lloyd slithered perilously past the...snowdrifts in obscure counties or sat in strange guest.rooms ploughing through the painstaking:memoranda of party workers, party morale at the grass roots was tumbling as un- employment, the Brussels breakdown, Beech- :ng and high rates took their toll. -In addition, these factors widened the gap between the party in the country and the party in Parliament. This was the crux of the matter for it was precisely this gap which was the chief item in Mr. Lloyd's terms of reference—`to consider the relationship and liaison between members of the party in Parliament, the party headquarters, the National Union and the party in constituencies.'
The Conservative Party, like any other, is a very delicate balance between leadership, con- stituency workers, and Members of Parliament. The Government of the day, if it is Conservative, can, it is true, expect almost infinite loyalty from the constituencies although the National Union guards its autonomy jealously and although government policy will inevitably be about twenty-five years ahead of a large section of the members. On the other hand the rank and file rapidly become troublesome if they feel that their voice is not even being heard on issues that closely affect them. This is particularly true when things are going- badly for the Govern- ment. Constituency committees begin to observe with disillusion that their Member, whom they chose as a candidate for his sound views and impeccable local background. has for all pur- poses become one of 'them' and cannot be relied on to do more than grumble ineffectively as he trudges through the lobbies as the Whips ordain. Some other way of bringing pressure to bear on the Government and some other safety valve for discontent have therefore to be found. The traditional answer has been to see that Ministers pay regular visits to the constituencies and that at the top of the National Union there are men who know what is going on outside London and will not mince words with the Government in passing it on. This is where we come to the ex- plosive question of the chairmanship of the party. The chief objection to Mr. Macleod as chairman has hot so much been that he has sometimes behaved tactlessly and abruptly in dealing with humble workers in the cause (though this has not helped) but that by his nature he has upset the balance of the party. Mr. Macleod is an arch 'them' figure. He is in the Cabinet and therefore, ex officio, on the wrong side. He is known to be one of the chief architects of the policies which the party die- hards find it most difficult to stomach. To crown all, he is Leader of the House of Commons and therefore the very man responsible for seeing that pressure through MPs does not deflect government policy. Mr. Lloyd was asked, with considerable frankness, how such a man could possibly represent the party to the Government. And as news of Mr. Lloyd's progress filtered back to Westminster anxious watchers began to wonder what use he would make of the question.
Now we know the answer. His report deals with every aspect of the relation of the con- stituencies and the parliamentary party except the one that really matters. There are quaint items of information in it, of course. We learn that `few agents or constituency officers want to be bothered' with the Young Britons (those wolf- cubs of the Tory pack). We hear that a Con- servative agent and his wife 'must keep up appearances' at a salary of between £700 and £1,250 a year. There are some shrewd recom- mendations in detail, at least one of which shows that Mr. Lloyd is still a politician (`con- stituencies should ensure that among prospective candidates attending for final interview one of the women applicants and one of the trade unionists are included'). But in general it is pos- sible to agree with the Minister who remarked with some satisfaction that the report was blancmange of a thing.'
After all the build-up, this anti-climax will do Mr. Lloyd no good, a point which he is much too intelligent to have missed. Why then has he not grasped the nettle and produced a radical account of constituency complaints? One reason is that the Tory Party does not like washing its dirty linen in public; but the main answer is that even if it did the chief ill has been discreetly remedied already. Mr. Lloyd told his tale to the Prime Minister in the spring and, lo and behold, Lord Poole, a non-Cabinet man, was appointed to-chairman with Mr. Macleod.
It was done beautifully, quietly, Conserva- tively. It eases Mr. Macleod out of the chair- manship with his prestige a little dented but his pride and prospects intact. It leaves the partY faithful, contentedly working at the election harvest in the knowledge that authority has harkened. And it leaves poor Mr. Lloyd to his friends and his memoirs but as far from a come- back as ever.
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