TO WOO MIDDLE CLASS

Chronicle (Levin), 10 June 1947, Page 5

TO WOO MIDDLE CLASS

.Press Assn.

(Speci'al 'Correspondent.)

British Laboitr Has Fears lor NextElection

By Telegraph

-Comright

Received Monday, 7.50 p.m. L'ONDON-, -Jnne 9.Th,e one diidi&putable . fact th'at • e.nTeiiged>. from tjie La'bour. Party px'o-. 'Peedings at Margate is that there Wiil : b'e no general el'ection be'fore tlre ,pre-; sent Parliament rans 'out, says- The Heonamist in a tevdew of tlre conf'er-; ■ence. On this assumption the Hoveinnient is evidently preparing to use the . next two ©r three years as breathing space td nonsolidate its position rather than .pttsh 'forwa-rd with "any new schemes. The danger signals of a!u--iministrative overstrain have been otu- ; served. The -Eeonomist notes that the Party = ; will mahe special effor'ts to gain suppo'rt in the r'ural areas 'and to te'thin it m. ' rnargiii al ones and goes oix :to say-: " -It • -is in t'his sense that Mr. Morrison 's speecli to eonference, ° with its tediscovery of the '-ro called. middl'e el'ass,' ! Wras so pertinent. It is not perhaps so very remarkable that Mr. Morrison slioiild have spoken in this sense, siiice , he always had the sense to see that tlie Labour 'Party, if it is to sufvive' tlie. test of pnblic opinion at the next elcction, raus't ally itself With and not alienate the middle class. Wha't was partieularly interesting was that his appehl to -e'niployers, managements and 'workers by brain ' to eooperate with Ihe 'Govemment, his barely disguised rebuke to tlre Shinwell school ot" thought, was so well received by tlie eonference. ' ' W'hat Mr. Morrison didn't sav' specificallv, although he implied it and Mr. Dalton was rather more specific, was that it is no use appealing to entrepreneurs to eooperate in the production drdve while at tlie sajne time conducting- a campaign ag'ainst the pro'lit motiv'e. " The Fconomist also says: "Mr Morrison knows that the Labour Party faces an upliill task. The present indications' are that it will be beaten at tlre gen eral election. That statement is based on tlie evidenee that the two major parties are now approximately equal in public esteem and on the probability tliat the next -two years will be a period of great economic 'clifficulty. "The Labour Party 's chances of reversing the present probabilities depend more than anything else on the succesS, tliey have in confronting the economic problems of the country in convincing the middle vote tliat they are not an exclusive class party. But their attempts to have a eohereiit policy are obstructed at every tuni by the jealous particularism of the unions. And there are very few members of the party >vho can bear to admit that there has ever •been and is not now a positive majori't}in t-lie country for socialism. " Only those of them who cannot con'trol their tongues will make the mistake tliat Mr. Sliinwell, Mr. Dalton and Jlr. A-neurin Bevan -made of deliberately infuriating the middle class.' , But very few of them will be able to bring themsel ves aetuallv to do anything helpful for the middle class or for the private en'terprise proht eawiing systetn bv which it earns its daily bread. ' '