Yorkshire Pudding

It looked for a moment as if Harold Wilson were about to smother in a Yorkshire pudding of his own making. British political polls had recently recorded an erosion of support for Wilson's Labor government, and things were not improved by the usual irritants of winter. All in all, it was a bad time for a test at the ballot box, but Wilson had called a by-election in the Yorkshire seaport of Hull, where in 1964 the Labor candidate had won by a mere 1,181 votes. Should the Hull seat be lost to the Tories, Wilson's majority in Commons would drop to a single vote.

Labor Handicaps. Locally the omens for a Labor victory seemed far from bright. The Conservative candidate, a dynamic business executive named Toby Jessel, 31, ran a hard-hitting campaign, hopping over hedges to pump housewives' hands and playing on the themes nearest to their hearts--chiefly rising prices and taxes. By contrast, Labor's Kevin McNamara, also 31, seemed colorless and retiring, limited his campaign pitch mainly to a call for loyalty to Wilson and the defense of government policies. Moreover, to add to Labor's troubles, a red-bearded left-wing journalist named Richard Gott. 27, entered the race. One of the new breed of folksong-singing Britniks, whose counterparts are American college antiwar protesters, Gott campaigned only on one issue: "Stop the Labor government's support of the U.S. war in Viet Nam." His avowed aim was to draw 1,000 votes away from the Labor candidate, and it looked as if he might succeed--to the advantage of the Conservatives.

Not so. When the votes were counted, Labor's McNamara had walked away with an amazing 5,351-vote plurality. Toby and Tory drew a scant 40.8% of the ballots, and Britnik Gott proved a rebel without a cause: he pulled only 253 votes, and had to forfeit his -L-150 campaign deposit. Declared the Manchester Guardian: "The voters of Hull have given Mr. Wilson the clearest message of support he has had since the general election."

Tactical Advantage. Next question was whether Wilson would yield to pressure within his party and call a new national election while the tidelet was running in his favor. If Hull's results were typical of the nation, argued slide-rule savants, Wilson could count on a 150-seat majority in Commons. This was a highly questionable assumption, but whatever Wilson's chances, London bookies last week were giving 3-to-2 odds that a general election would be held before the end of March.

But Wilson has been insisting that his government's policies are only just beginning to have their effect on the economy, and it might be better to wait. Moreover, he has fared well enough on the razor-edge majority. For one thing, it has helped him to keep his left wing in line. As things stand now, the far leftists must go along with his moderate line or bring down the government. But with a wide majority for Labor of 50 to 100 seats, the left-wingers could revolt at will on every niggling issue, not only embarrassing Wilson but also putting him in greater danger of a Tory upset than at present. Thus, in one sense at least, a slim lead for Labor is healthier than a fat one.

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