Decay of the Conservatives

For three months, as the Government has struggled in the deepening morass of Britain's troubles, Winston Churchill has thrived on the confusion of his Laborite adversaries. His temper has shortened, his glower deepened and his oratory come to full flower again. He no longer talks about turning over his captaincy to a younger man. Some optimistic Conservatives have brightened; perhaps, after all, there is an immediate future for the Tory Party.

This week Churchill and his chieftains had a chance to overthrow the Government and force a general election. Labor was split over the conscription bill; a fortnight ago 75 anti-conscription Laborite rebels voted against the Government. Its skin was saved by the Conservatives, who voted for the bill--although they might have found reasons of their own for opposing it, and thus forced a general election. The tactical opportunity will still be open to the Tories when the bill comes up for second reading.

To Gain a Plague. Among the men around Churchill in this moment of decision would be several who have hoped to inherit his leadership: tired, greying, 49-year-old Anthony Eden (most Britons still think of him as younger and more dynamic than he actually is); cool, aloof Richard Austen ("Rab") Butler; able Sir Oliver Lyttelton; clever Harold Macmillan; lazy Oliver Stanley. But there was little doubt that the telling weight in the decision would be Churchill's. And there was almost no doubt that Churchill would decide against trying for a knockout blow.

In Britain's hour of need for leadership, the Loyal Opposition does not want to take power. For one thing, most Tory leaders do not believe that the country would support them. If they did come to power, they would have to champion more of the same harsh, unpopular measures (including conscription) which have plagued Labor. A Tory Government would not be able to get as much cooperation from British workers as the Labor regime. Said one Conservative M.P.: "If we had won the 1945 election, we would now probably be in the middle of our second general strike--and losing it."

However, the Tory futility is rooted in something far more significant to Britain's future than the political maneuvers of the moment. The hard truth is that Big-C Conservatives have lost their faith in small-c conservatism. They are now economic and political agnostics, with no new belief to replace their lost faith in free enterprise.

To Lose a Precept. British Tories agree almost unanimously on the necessity of thorough public controls. They quarrel mostly with the degree and not the principle of public ownership. They believe that free enterprise has gone out of their lives; and a sizable minority believes that that is a good thing. The current best hope of most businessmen who think of themselves as conservatives is that they will be left reasonably unrestricted as the agents of public enterprise.

The Conservative Party may continue for a while to be an alternative to a Labor Party. But it is now clear that it will be conservative in name only. Said one grim Tory M.P. last week: "When we get back into power, we'll show them how to run Socialism properly."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.