Liberal Resurgence

Mr. Harold Wilson, who, Heaven help us, would probably be Chancellor of the Exchequer in a Labor Government, once observed bitterly: “Whichever Party’s in office, the Liberals are in power.” There is a sense in which quite a lot of us who do not share his views might echo the complaint. What he meant, however, was that the civil servants at the Treasury were all Liberals, believers in laissez faire and thus a clog on good socialist planning. If this were true, which unfortunately it isn’t, they would be more liberal than the Liberal Party, which seems largely to have abandoned such old-fashioned doctrines.

The Liberal Party has been in the wilderness for a generation. Bitterness and an unsatisfied thirst for power sapped its vigor. But now it sees a green oasis of hope; or perhaps the mirage of one. There is a Liberal revival: everybody says so. New members are flocking to join the National Liberal Club, that tiled mausoleum which Lord Curzon once pretended to believe was a public lavatory considerately placed half-way between his home and the Foreign Office.

AL

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Anthony Lejeune

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British Conservative Party

Mr. Harold Wilson, who, Heaven help us, would probably be Chancellor of the Exchequer in a Labor Government, once observed bitterly: “Whichever Party’s in office, the Liberals are in power.” There is a sense in which quite a lot of us who do not share his views might echo the complaint. What he meant, however, was that the civil servants at the Treasury were all Liberals, believers in laissez faire and thus a clog on good socialist planning. If this were true, which unfortunately it isn’t, they would be more liberal than the Liberal Party, which seems largely to have abandoned such old-fashioned doctrines.

The Liberal Party has been in the wilderness for a generation. Bitterness and an unsatisfied thirst for power sapped its vigor. But now it sees a green oasis of hope; or perhaps the mirage of one. There is a Liberal revival: everybody says so. New members are flocking to join the National Liberal Club, that tiled mausoleum which Lord Curzon once pretended to believe was a public lavatory considerately placed half-way between his home and the Foreign Office.