By-Election Barometer

Because Britain's major parties have contrived to postpone a general election until further notice, occasional by-elections to fill vacancies in Parliament are the best indications of political trends. Last week a by-election at Eddisbury (TIME, March 29) suggested a trend away from the principal, trucing parties (Labor, Conservative, Liberal).

After three fizzling tries, the new Common Wealth Party elected its first Member of Parliament: R.A.F. Warrant Officer John Loverseed defeated Thomas Peacock, the candidate endorsed by Winston Churchill's predominantly conservative National Government. What the people of Eddisbury voted for was best explained by Common Wealth's zealous founder, Sir Richard Acland (who holds a Commons seat as a Liberal). Said he:

"We want to amalgamate the Russian economic system with our own democratic political system. . . . We are going to become a country without big capitalists. That is what we are righting for and the ordinary workers and soldiers are going to see to it that they are not led up the garden path, as they were after the last war. We are going to see to it that the community comes first and self-interest second. Capitalism is completely finished."

Common Origin. Common Wealth had its first discernible origin in 1940, when philanthropic, wildly socialistic, 36-year-old Sir Richard launched his Forward March Movement with the slogan: "Liberty, Equality, and Material Well Being." In early 1941, Author J. B. Priestley and a group of other intellectuals prodded the Churchill Government with a manifesto demanding a definition of Britain's war and peace aims, a more positive social consciousness.

Last year Priestley and Acland channeled their strength in a merger: the Common Wealth Party. Unhappy in the common harness, Priestley resigned. Sir Richard took sole charge.

The election of one Common Wealth M.P. did not prove that either capitalism or Winston Churchill is finished in Britain. It did prove that the people of Eddisbury are dissatisfied with the static, enervating truce which now binds their established parties and the Churchill Government.

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