Abstract
The years between 1959 and 1964 witnessed a dramatic reversal in the fortunes of the two major parties — the decline of the Conservatives who had dominated British politics since 1951, and the resurgence of the Labour party. On October 10th, 1959, two days after polling in the general election, a leading article in the New Statesman began: ‘Whatever the outcome of the poll, the 1959 election campaign has been a signal and significant success for Labour.’ But the paper had gone to press before the results were known, and a week later the offending sentence appeared in its ironical ‘This England’ column.
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Notes
The voting at Scarborough upset the traditional balance of power in the party. In the past, a majority of the largest trade unions had generally supported the leadership, while the majority of constituency parties was often hostile. At Scarborough, however, it was the trade-union block votes which defeated the official policy; a majority of the constituency vote was in favour. A year later more than half the constituency votes were still anti-unilateralist. See Keith Hindell and Philip Williams, ‘Scarborough and Blackpool’, Political Quarterly, vol. XXXIII, 1962, no. 3, pp. 306–20. The gulf between the unions and the constituency parties had, of course, always been exaggerated; see
Martin Harrison, Trade Unions and the Labour Party since 1945, George Allen and Unwin, 1960, esp. Chapter V. Mr. Aneurin Bevan died in July 1960. What attitude he would have taken in the controversy remains a mystery.
W. T. Rodgers, ed., Hugh Gaitskell 1906–1963, Thames & Hudson, 1964, p. 129.
Lord Kilmuir, Political Adventure, Weidenfield and Nicolson, 1964, p. 324; The Times, July 23rd, 1962.
For a full account of Britain’s relations with Europe during this period, and the evolution of British policy, see Miriam Camps, Britain and the European Community 1955–63, Oxford U.P., 1964. For a briefer account, see
Nora Beloff, The General Says No, Penguin, 1963. The latter volume contains a short chronology.
For an informed, if argumentative, account of the Vassall case, see Rebecca West, The Vassall Affair, Sunday Telegraph, 1963. A number of books have already appeared on Profumo. By far the most impressive is Scandal ’63 by Clive Irving, Ron Hall, and Jeremy Wallington (Heinemann, 1963). Cf.
Wayland Young, The Profumo Affair, Aspects of Conservatism, Penguin, 1963, and Lord Denning’s Report, H.M.S.O., Cmnd. 2152, 1963. The imprisonment of the two journalists angered the newspaper world, which blamed not the Radcliffe tribunal but the government. Relations between the press and the government remained strained until well after Mr. Macmillan’s retirement.
So far two accounts of the leadership crisis have been published. Mr. Macmillan’s version (more or less) is to be found in Randolph Churchill, The Fight for the Tory Leadership, Heinemann, 1964. Mr. Macleod replied in the Spectator of January 17th, 1964. Sir Alec’s premiership was made possible by the passage in July 1963 of a Peerage Act enabling peers to disclaim their titles. The Act arose out of the case of Mr. Anthony Wedgwood Benn who succeeded to the title of Lord Stansgate in November 1960 and thereafter waged a long and ultimately successful campaign to make possible renunciation of peerages. For a brief account see Chapter VI in Randolph Churchill’s book.
Mr. Wilson’s speeches were subsequently published by Penguin Books under the title The New Britain: Labour’s Plan. A selection of Sir Alec Douglas-Home’s speeches was edited and introduced by Eldon Griffiths: Peaceful Change, Arthur Barker, 1964.
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© 1965 D. E. Butler and Anthony King
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Butler, D.E., King, A. (1965). Politics and the Public. In: The British General Election of 1964. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-81741-2_2
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