SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
J. W. M. THOMPSON
Mr Heath has only himself to blame for the embarrassment his American trip has brought him. Anyone could have foreseen that he wasn't going to do himself or anyone else much good by going abroad and saying the sort of things he has been telling the Americans. True or false, the American public isn't in a position to do much about it; while here at home, I think. a good many people are made to feel uncom- fortable by political hatchet-work when prac- tised in a foreign country.
There is, I daresay, no absolute reason why a British politician shouldn't go to America and paint an alarming picture of govern- mental collapse at home if he wishes to. Mr Heath certainly says much the same in this country, and in a general way the Americans are aware of his point. It is mainly a matter of taste and timing. A more polished and secure politician, one feels, would not think it worth doing. It's true that Mr Heath's damaging remarks about the Government came when he was answering questions on the Meet the Press programme; but there are ways of dealing with the most direct of interviewers' questions with- out actually lashing -out in all directions. I suspect that if the political parties' positions were reversed-many Tories would now be splut- tering with indignation at the 'unpatriotic' conduct of the Leader of the Opposition, just as Messrs Houghton. and Shinwell are now doing.-
Two-year itch
Mr Heath's attempts to put on the pressure derive, of course. from the constitutional arrangements which will keep the prospect of a• general election dangling before -us- for any- thing up to two years: Attached as I am to our constitutional singularities, I fear we may all find ourselves paying a heavy price for this - one. The prospect of a two-year election cam- paign looms horribly: two years of hard- hitting speeches, fearless onslaughts, devastat- ing attacks and even, heaven help us, construe- tive alternatives. It's enough to make the voters roll over and sham dead en masse until time brings its relief.
And in one sense that is precisely what the voters are doings in spite of Chris Chataway's sensational capture of that notorious revolu- tionary stronghold at Chichester. At any rate, after studying the latest Daily Telegraph Gallup Poll I conclude that if they are not shamming dead neither are they showing many signs of animation over either party leader. Mr Heath was saying in Washington that he felt 'very secure' in his leadership of the Tory party and he has good reason to do so. On the other hand, he could hardly make the same claim about his hold on popular favour. According to Gallup, only 28 per cent of the electorate think him a good leader of his party, while 29 per cent of them are 'satisfied' with Mr Wilson as Prime Minister. This leaves nearly half the electorate dissatisfied with the pair of them.
But Mr Heath, I see, holds firmly to his lead in one quarter._ His 'don't knows' continue to run far ahead of Mr Wilson's and are even increasing. Recent history has already thrown up a political leader dubbed 'the unknown prime minister': maybe in due course we shall see another one returned to power on a landslide of 'don't knows.' It occurs to me that could be less appropriate consummations of the present national mess.
McCarthy on Biafra
It seems a long, long time since the American presidential election. The soporific spell of the Nixon administration has consigned that extra- ordinary, turbulent year to a pigeonhole of history. Poor Hubert Humphrey has all but dis- appeared from human ken. And what of Senator McCarthy. not long ago the trustee of so many bright hopes? He at least still exists politically. His place in the Senate guarantees him a greater survival power than many of the casualties of last November's upheaval. And I'm interested to hear that he has now begun to use his position to try to inject a little sanity into the Biafran tragedy. The other day he made a cogent speech in the Senate (wholly unreported in this country. I believe). pressing- for an arms embargo, an international relief effort and full recognition qf Biafra by the American government.
His words would displease the Labour-Tory consensus in this country which appears to think no price too great to pay for 'one Nigeria.' They were, obviously, unpalatable to the Wash- ington policy-makers who have played along with Britain's remorselessly anti-Biafran line. But what McCarthy was doing over Biafra re- sembled what he did over Vietnam: he was looking afresh at a monstrous catastrophe and seeking for ways to overcome some of the • failures of orthodoxy. His effort may not get very far. But the -millions who cheered him on Vietnam owe him a hearing when he speaks in similar tones of the greater disaster of Biafra.
Spring offensive
One of my Whitsun pleasures was a walk down a favourite country lane past a delicious road- side flower show of cow-parsley and other, brighter wild flowers. An exhibitor at Chelsea would have spent a small fortune to achieve such a display, yet here it was growing un- planned and free of charge. Next day a gang of workmen arrived with a cutting machine and obliterated the lot, leaving only an unappetising green mush behind.
This was done, in the name of tidiness, by a local council which is supposed to have a feel, ing for its locality. What. I now wonder, are we, to expect of the dreaded new super-councils with which, for efficiency's sake, we are threatened? Concrete?
Official candour
I'm pleased to see that the telegraphic address of the Stationery Office--or 'The Government Bookshop' as it has taken to calling itself—is 'WHOLE( ORN, LONDON.' Evidently someone in there, engaged in handling that prodigious flow of the official printed word, knows what's what and felt that a touch of anony- mous literary criticism would not be out of place.
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