Letter from London

How to Unscramble An Omelet

There’s no great mystery about why the British Conservatives lost the Lewisham by-election. The Rent Act is taking most of the blame. This Act is a belated first step at clearing away the tangle of restrictions on rented property which began as emergency legislation in the first World War and is by now well on the way to producing new slums: landlords aren’t allowed to raise rents to a point which makes it economical to repair their property. This made it necessary that, under the recent Rent Act, tenants pay more; and the Socialists exploited the fact. There was also an Independent candidate at Lewisham, who probably took more votes from the Conservatives than from Labor, and, of course, there’s always a swing against the Government in office.

AL

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Anthony Lejeune

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How to Unscramble An Omelet

There’s no great mystery about why the British Conservatives lost the Lewisham by-election. The Rent Act is taking most of the blame. This Act is a belated first step at clearing away the tangle of restrictions on rented property which began as emergency legislation in the first World War and is by now well on the way to producing new slums: landlords aren’t allowed to raise rents to a point which makes it economical to repair their property. This made it necessary that, under the recent Rent Act, tenants pay more; and the Socialists exploited the fact. There was also an Independent candidate at Lewisham, who probably took more votes from the Conservatives than from Labor, and, of course, there’s always a swing against the Government in office.