Out in Front

By law, a British Prime Minister is required to go to the people every five years --sooner if he thinks the time propitious. The Tories' five-year deadline is next May, but the betting is that Harold Macmillan will call an election in October or November. Reason: he is riding high. Last week a Gallup poll showed the Tories with a 590 edge over Labor, a gain of 2% in the past month.

Macmillan has gained popularity through the Ike-Khrushchev meeting--which Macmillan supporters credit him with sparking--and has seemingly not been hurt at home by Labor's effective jabs at British colonial failures in Africa. But above all, Macmillan owes his popularity to Britain's current prosperity. Two years ago Macmillan gambled on a politically unpopular anti-inflation budget and an unprecedented increase in the bank rate to 7%. This year these austere fiscal policies of the Conservatives have paid off--in more ways than one.

With a year's-end Treasury surplus, steadily rising exports and the first favorable balance of trade with the U.S. since 1865, the Tories were able last spring to free the pound, lower income and purchase taxes, even reduce by 2-c- the price of the Englishman's beloved pint. If Gallup is correct, the Tories might not only win a third consecutive term in office--something no party has yet accomplished in British history--but might even increase their House of Commons majority.

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