Gloomy Labor

"There are some who say that we have nothing left to say, that we did all we had to do after 1945," exclaimed Opposition Leader Hugh Gaitskell, his wiry hair flying, his sharply whittled nose pecking the air with indignation. Before him in Scarborough's Spa Grand Hall, some 1,500 Labor Party delegates sat in somber conclave last week for what all presumed would be their last annual conference before a general election in the spring.

Only a year ago the Tory government of Harold Macmillan was losing one by-election after another, and Labor felt certain of its return to power. But since summer, as Britons' wrath at the Tories' Suez disaster faded, and once unpopular Tory anti-inflationary measures began building a new economic stability, the Macmillan government had bounced back to the top of the opinion polls. Laborites sensed that they might be headed not for office but for a third straight electoral defeat. Opening the conference, Party Chairman Tom Driberg conceded: "Our principles and policies have not yet had the impact on public opinion in Britain that they must have if we are to win the election."

To Wheel or to Charge. The job of rousing an indifferent electorate fell overwhelmingly to Leader Gaitskell. Old Rival Nye Bevan ostentatiously stepped back, indicating by an open reference to his age ("I am 60") that he would rather be a potential Foreign Secretary than a rebel who would never be Prime Minister. That left the left-wingers without a head but still capable of making a lot of noise. With the help of the stolid old trade-union wheel-horses who are the strength of the party, Gaitskell skillfully headed off the more headlong Socialist chargers. Hell-bent for equality, they wanted to abolish British public (i.e., private) schools, such as his own posh Winchester. They were beaten (see EDUCATION).

Then some of the passel of pacifists, neutralists and fellow travelers wanted to denounce U.S. bases in Britain and scuttle NATO. Gaitskell, a middle-of-the-road friend of NATO and the U.S., took the steam out of their drive by moving an "emergency resolution" vowing not to support any war for Quemoy and pledging "no obsequious silence" before U.S. policy if Labor rules.

To Fly or to Fall. But if Scarborough drew Labor together behind GaitskelFs lead, it was nonetheless a defensive conference, and hardly the kind to inspire a party trying to return to power. "United we fall," cracked one prominent Laborite. Socialists, tied to a creed outworn, see the Tories successfully administering their welfare state, and the public in no mood for dated dogmas. Gaitskell himself has not caught public fancy. The party has yet to find the proper rocket fuel (o propel it on the second stage to its New Jerusalem. About the only fresh election cry came from Gaitskell. In a land where only one family in three has a car, he won big cheers by offering the campaign slogan: "A car for every British family."-

* Just 30 years after Herbert Hoover became U.S. President on the slogan: "Two cars in every garage."

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