To Raise the Corpse

What can we, as students, do to raise the corpse of the Labour Party? Primarily, we can make it clear that It should not be a corpse, if we had the courage to fetch in the Labour working votes, National would be as far in the wilderness as we are now. (That, of course, goes for Britain too: except that there Labour has at least a slim chance of throwing out Gaitskill and Macmillan on defence alone). We need, as I have said, new leaders (not, please God, depression men or Methodists). This new leadership will be no more than middle of the road, but it can hardly fail to be more alert than the old. Then the fight becomes one to get a Socialist M.P. in on a strong seat, and wait until opportunity or—less likely—opinion gives him power.

Complementary to this, the Party needs far more powerful publicity. The Unions must be persuaded that it is in their own interests to give up their little capitalist ventures for a while, and put up the money for a national left-wing newspaper. After a probationary period such a paper could be expected to become self supporting, provided that it subordinates politics to matters of more immediate interest, such as sex and sport. With any luck this could make a nasty hole in the circulations of the clean fingered Dominion, the Herald, and their kin.

The other great publicity channel television, should be exploited as far as possible. Again the accent should be on entertainment, this time aimed at the middle classes. Here the Left has the advantage. Judgring from experience overseas. Socialists can put their arguments cogently; while Conservatism is largely intestinal, and its arguments more fantastic than fight.

On a smaller scale, it is possible that a group of students or graduates could themselves be a national force, provided that they had, as a group, training in the requisite fields. Figures such as Keynes, Woolf, the Webbs, Laski, come to mind. They were themselves rarely politicians, but their training in such fields as economics, political theory, science and writing gave them often greater influence than the lawgivers. Their merit was not that they were more dedicated than their opponents, but that they were better trained. It still should not be hard.

A recent article in the Listener remarks the periodic shattering of radical parties. It's about time we Picked up the Pieces.