Spectator's Notebook
THE pollsters have been recording a large swing in favour of Britain's going into the European Economic Community. No surprise here: this is the expected result of the sharp consolidation of Tory opinion, hastened by Mr. Gaitskell's manoeuvres. But they also record a dramatic decline in support for the Liberals. This sudden retrogression of the revival reminds me of a talk I had with a Minister in June. Of course, he said then, with a calm which was not exactly mirrored throughout his party at the time, the Liberals are collecting a hefty protest vote; of course they deserve the headlines they are winning at by-elections--but wait until the House goes into recess, and there aren't any by-elections for three months, and you'll soon sec interest in (and support for) the Liberals beginning to flag. Something of the sort has obviously happened. But so also has something even more important. So long as the Liberals had no real policy, they could be a kind of Battersea Home for strays--some of them, judging from their answers to questions, curi- ously cross-bred. But once the Liberals tried to define their policy, they immediately began to adopt postures which offended the majority of their new supporters.
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