Chatty Chancellor

When Hugh Dalton, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, blurted himself out of the cabinet and into the penitential back benches of the Labor Party (TIME, Nov. 24), no one expected he would have to stay there for long. Early last week the dunce cap was off and he was back again, this time as Chancellor of The Duchy of Lancaster.* He had talked himself back just as effectively as he had talked himself out--or, as London's doggerel-of-the-week put it:

The Chatty Chancellor, as such, We were really bound to sack, But as he still talks far too much, We have to take him back.

Dalton's talk over the last few months had been loud, adroit, and full of discomfiture to the government. It was also skillfully aimed at the Labor Party gallery. At last month's Party conference at Scarborough, Dalton's "Keep Left" speeches had been well-received by rank & file delegates ; they elected him to the Party Executive by a whopping vote. For Laborites who thought that Cripps was going ahead too slowly with the Socialist revolution (or that the government was showing too much concern for middle-class and professional support in the 1950 elections), Dalton was intoning the oldtime religion: the cure for what ails Britain is just more Socialism.

Ensconced in his new job last week, Dalton gave orthodox British Socialists a sample of what they like to hear. Said he: "The Tories always kept you on short rations and left the rich more than their share . . . We are going to turn that upside down. We are going to have plentiful supplies and share them out fairly."

* A sinecure, first established in 1351. Its traditional duties involve managing royal estates, making local appointments to the tune of a couple of hours a week. Former holders: Winton Churchill (1915), Sir Oswald Mosley (1929-30).

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