Exit the squatter
The squatter in No. 10 Downing Street has at last departed. Nothing became his leadership of the nation so ill as the manner of his leaving it. And there is yet one further step to be taken in his humiliation: he must now resign the leadership of the Conservative Party. Mr Edward Heath's monomania was never more clearly seen than in the days after the general election when, a ludicrous and broken figure. he clung with grubby fingers to the crumbling precipice of his power. True, it is said that his first instinct was to resign, and that he was dissuaded from doing so only by the united appeal of his colleagues. But there is no sign that the plea of Mr Whitelaw was more than formal; and Mr Heath was undoubtedly pathetically eager to listen to the specious arithmetic of Lord Carrington and other members of his Praetorian Guard, according to which the Tories, having gained more votes than Labour, though fewer seats, were entitled to continue in office.
This was a more than ordinarily dishonourable and disgusting argument, coming from a party which took office in 1951 on a minority of the popular vote, and from a Prime Minister who has steadfastly, and in direct denial of a solemn undertaking, refused to allow the people to choose between their independence and the disastrous European future he planned for them. And it was particularly dishonourable coming from a Conservative government, which, having entered upon its term with high and reforming hopes, and having betrayed or reversed practically every one of its major policies, was seen to be seeking, with the aid of the Liberals, to cling, not so much to power, for they had little of that felt, as to office alone. The spectacle was ludicrous; it was pathetic; it was contemptible. And Mr Heath having been over the weekend a squalid nuisance, remains, as leader of the Tory Party, just that.
The Spectator has sometimes been accused of a vindictive and personal dislike of Mr Heath. The accusation is unfair: for a long time we supported him in practically every one of his policies, save the European. We rejoiced in his 1970 victory, and applauded the determination with which he set about his quiet revolution. Only over the last two years, when policy after policy was reversed, and disastrous alternatives were introduced with an impenetrable blend of self-righteousness and bullying, did we begin to realise how destructive he is for the party as leader, as he has been for the country as Prime Minister. It is not too much to say that Mr Heath has spent nine years trying to ruin the Conservative Party, and three and a half trying to ruin the country. It may seem unfair and unkindly to pursue this line of argument when Mr Heath has resigned. It is not, because he still has, as leader of the main Opposition party, great potential for damaging the interests of that party and the country.
It is necessary only to look at his record. He has, by his European policy, sundered the deep and abiding association in people's minds between the Tory Party and patriotism, an association that has served the party so well. He has, by the sheer incompetence of his handling of governmental affairs, destroyed the conviction that Conservatives are at least Moderately efficient in government: it was Chilling to Tory ears to hear Mr Wilson, during the campaign, explain almost wearily how Labour were coming in to clear up yet another Tory mess. He has, first, allowed the party to develop an economic policy of free enterprise O n which they were elected but in which he Merely pretended to believe and, second, demanded the utter reversal of that policy, asking the while from his followers an unexampled subservience which few, knowing the vindictiveness of his unforgiving nature, had the courage to deny him. To cap all this he went to the country on a spurious and fraudulent issue, attempting to incite the had on a law and order issue where no law nad been broken, and raising a communist spectre where none existed. Well did Mr Wilson say that Mr Heath was the first British Politician to make the British Communist arty seem important: the proof, indeed, of Mr Heath's inadequacy, incompetence and bloody-minded misjudgement came when, in a general election which saw a massive swing away from him, Mr Jimmy Reid, the most Ponular Communist candidate imaginable, was obliterated in Central Dun bartonshire.
For these reasons Mr Heath must now depart the Tory leadership as quickly as possible, and before he can do more damage. One need ,g!ance only briefly at the terrible spectacle of Ins leading another campaign against Mr Wils0n later this year — and there must surely be another election this year — to see the neces sity of that. What would he say? What manifesto could he produce? Would he again have the face to demand a large majority in order to continue strong government? How would his cold and barren nature appear to the reporters assembled each morning at his press conferences, who were very nearly overawed during the late campaign by his ruthless command of effrontery? No: it cannot be, and unless the Tory Party has taken leave of its senses, it will not be. The humiliating spectacle at the beginning of the week, when Mr Heath, squatting in No 10, grovelled at the feet of Mr Thorpe, at whom he had so often and so readily sneered in the past — "Who's he?" he demanded at one press conference — makes it clear that, if the Conservative Party is to regain any respect in the eyes of the nation, any regard for its patriotism, any sense of its own dignity, Heath must go.
Colder continent
From the rifts and changes in our own political situation it is now necessary to run to those on the Continent. Herr Brandt's ruling Social Democratic Party has just lost its majority in the Hamburg state parliament, a fortress hitherto regarded as invulnerable to attacks, however determined, from the rival Christian Democrats. At the same time French opinion polls — generally much more reliable than our own — suggest that, a year after the last general election, the Gaullists would still be returned to power if another general election were held. In spite of President Pompidou's failing health, therefore, his party seems set for a further run of the power which they have held in one way or another since the return of General de Gaulle, while the Brandt government seems marked for extinction. Both these likely events have consequences for whatever government takes power in Britain: a Christian Democrat administration is far less likely to lean over backward to placate Britain, while a continuing Gaullist government in France is likely to maintain its intransigent attitude of national independence. Either way the continent is bound to be a colder place for Britain in the years ahead.
New hope in Africa
The mandate just given to Bishop Abel Muzorewa by the African National Council to continue his negotiations with Mr Smith and his government is the most encouraging news to come out of Africa for a long time.When Sir Alec Douglas-Home successfully asked the Conservative conference last year to support him in his determination to continue sanctions while the domestic parties to the Rhodesian dispute continued their discussions, it was widely thought that his was merely a facesaving tactical ploy, designed not to offend such powerful African friends of Britain as Nigeria. Now, it appears, there is more than a grain of hope in the policy Sir Alec and Mr Heath have held to in the face of all scorn and difficulties. As soon as a British government is formed it will be necessary to take up the threads again in Rhodesia, and see if it would not still be possible to procure some settlement between the peoples of that unhappy country such as would enable Britain, with honour, to withdraw from involvement in its affairs.
