Significant Straw

In steady drizzle that turned to fog, about 40,000 Liverpool suburbanites voted last week in the West Derby by-election. "A significant straw," the politicos called it, for West Derby symbolizes Britain's even political balance: able Sir David Maxwell Fyfe held onto the seat for the Conservatives so narrowly in the 1951 general election that the Socialists needed only a 1.7% swing to win this year.

Now that Sir David, a successful Home Secretary, has been elevated to the peerage as Viscount Kilmuir (Churchill recently made him Lord Chancellor), a by-election was needed. Both parties wheeled out their heavy artillery. "There has been a steady encroachment on the living standards of our people," claimed Socialist Clement Attlee. For the Tories Sir Winston claimed a calmer world outside and more prosperity inside Britain. A characteristically tight British majority apparently agreed with Sir Winston. The result: for 27-year-old Tory John Woollam, a riveter's son, 21,158 votes versus 18,650 for his Socialist rival--a small but gratifying increase of 1.5% for the Tories.

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