I AM SURPRISED at the Manchester Guardian's reaction to the
interview with the Prime Minister on Southern Television. The Guardian complains that he turned it 'into a vehicle for psychological political warfare'; describing Mr. Macmillan's conduct as 'questionable,' it suggests he should have confined himself to the kind of otiose re- marks he made at the end of the interview, about his pride in his post. I should have thought that what politicians in this country need (few more than Mr. Macmillan) is the capacity to stop being pompous or pontifical in public; and if Mr. Mac- millan had in fact enlivened, the occasion by indulging in controversial political manoeuvres I should have been glad to hear it. But in fact he said nothing new : his statement that the general election would not be held this winter merely repeated what he had said on television as long ago as October 2 and had told his con- stituents a month before that. It is arguable that a member of the Government should not announce new policies on television, any more than he should announce them in an after-dinner speech; on the grounds that the place for such pronouncements is the House of Commons. But to object to the Prime Minister answering straight questions put to him in a television interview is surely unjustifiable. * *
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