Blunt Hatchets
THE Labour Party has gloved its hatchet, but neither quickly enough nor carefully enough to prevent a sorry mess from becoming a farce. The campaigning against fellow travellers in CND and the Committee of 100 has been dropped; Glasgow has been diplomatically for- gotten; Lord Charley, Lady Wootton and Canon Collins have been forgiven. What remains of the buck is being passed by Mr. Brown to lesser members of the hierarchy.
On • Tuesday, when the Organisation Com- mittee of the National Executive was meet- ing in an attempt to forgive and forget, Canon Collins became the key figure. The committee spent the interviewing and negotiating with him searching for a compromise between the party's desire to forget while retaining some kind of authority for its list of proscribed organisations, and Canon Collins's desire to stay in the party (he is afraid of even more anarchy in CND if he is thrown out) without injuring his principles.
Unfortunately for the Labour Party its climb- down will be to little effect. Lord Russell was thrown out on the pretext that he had not paid his annual subscription to the party. And because Lord Russell is of particular interest to journalists, the whole affair has become an even more obvious exercise in ineptitude. Lord Russell goes out; Canon Collins stays in, Even the Canon's anxiety-to compromise cannot, make the situation look any the less silly to an amused, or, in some cases, angered audience.
Previous page
