Britain's Dangerous Mood

Britain began lighting up again last week. The country's striking coal miners (TIME, Feb. 28) overwhelmingly accepted the government's offer of a 21% pay hike and started returning to the pits. Despite the widespread public relief that the power crisis was over, darker days ahead for Prime Minister Edward Heath are predicted by Correspondent Honor Balfour, who has covered the British scene, including Parliament, for TIME since 1944. Her assessment:

THE mounting tide of hatred and violence, of obstinacy and impatience and disillusionment is leading to a breakdown of traditional values in a society that has for generations been revered for its respect for justice, humanity, law and order. Nowhere do I see the leadership that might steer the nation away from its disastrous course.

In the immediate aftermath of the miners' return to work, there is a positive effort by men and management in the mining industry to make a fresh start. In his prime ministerial broadcast at week's end, Mr. Heath did his best to reassert his government's authority and set a new trend toward his dedicated aim of Disraeli's "one nation." In the light of this slender ray, there are those who insist that "the British will pull through--we always do." But facts must be faced.

Heath's government is confronted with a violent impasse in Ulster, impenetrable problems in Rhodesia, soaring inflation and nearly a million unemployed at home. The treasury announced last month that the pound sterling is worth only 51 pence compared with its value in 1953. The nation is still divided on the Common Market. The color problem is heightened by unemployment, housing and schooling conditions. There are more inflationary wage demands on the way, and more clashes between trade-union power and the government must be expected.

Even massive problems can be overcome--if the spirit is there in the nation. But the bitterness of the miners' strike is only the latest example of irrational and emotional hatreds such as have not been rife in Britain since the dangerous days of 1911-14. Some historians say it was only the outbreak of the first World War that saved a divided nation from bloody revolution.

In the face of the current threat, the Prime Minister's inflexibility must only serve to aggravate the workers (who look upon it as arrogance) and stiffen his supporters in their growing irritation with organized labor. Should Heath snap rather than bend--as did that other obstinate Prime Minister, Anthony Eden, in 1957--who would fill the vacuum? The Tory Party would never accept the fiery, rabble-rousing M.P. Enoch Powell. But his demagogy would exploit basic passions, for he personifies the fears, jealousies and hatreds of many British people to a frightening degree.

Meanwhile on the left, the Labor opposition led by Harold Wilson dithers irresolutely, divided on economic policy and on Europe. The white-hot Wilson who fronted the technological challenge of his 1964 victory is a gray ash of his former self--and his credibility is as fragile. His is not the Cromwellian voice that might save the workers from the siren calls of industrial and political anarchy. No longer is there that "we are on our way" zest of ten years ago. Barring a hard-to-foresee miracle, there is a long, hot summer ahead for Britain.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.