Onward I

Britain last week turned a "deeper pink. In the first municipal elections to be held since 1938, voters emphatically reaffirmed their socialist stroke of last July.

Labor used a telling argument at the hustings: a Labor Parliament needed Labor councils to carry out Labor policy. Then, in the words of its slogan, it could go "full steam ahead." When the votes had been counted in the 182 biggest metropolitan and provincial boroughs, Labor had brushed aside most of its opposition to win 2,977 seats (a gain of 1,245). Conservative strength slid from 1,595 seats to 835, Liberals from 245 to 111. Communists upped their standing from 7 to 22.

London, long a Labor field, is now a socialist citadel: 22 of its 28 boroughs. 1,029 of its 1,377 councilors are Labor. Most of the smaller towns and blitzed areas went the same way. Some of the large provincial cities (e.g., Manchester, Liverpool) stayed Tory, but usually in the face of Labor gains. In traditionally Tory Birmingham, Labor nosed out the Conservatives by a single seat.

For the second time in less than four months, Britons had given Labor the clearest of green lights. Now it could go full steam ahead to socialism.

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