The Rotherham Result
The swing over of votes in favour of Labour at the Rotherham by-election is so big that it can hardly. be accounted for by the removal of the exceptional conditions of the General Election or the automatic: reaction against a Government in power. The Labour: majority of 15,874, replacing a Conservative majority, of. 762, is not much less than in 1929, when the tide, was_ running strongly to the Left. One obvious cause of the. turnover is the conflict over the Means Test, which the, Socialists were able to exploit to the utmost in this district by denouncing the appointment of a Commissioner to administer transitional relief-in the place of the Public AsSistance Committee. But it is pretty certain that many Liberals and some Conservatives withdrew their support from the Government out of dissatisfaction with its disarmament and Far Eastern policies, and its failure to cope with unemployment.
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