Illusory revival
Sir: A complete pave of The Spectator devoted to the Liberals' Southport meeting (September 29) is surely excessive. Editorial indulgence apart, the writer of that page displayed extraordinary naibete in discussing the possibility of the little Party having to make up its mind eventually about forming a coalition with either the Tories or Labour. Can it possibly have escaped Mr Patrick Cosgrave's notice that every prediction of a Liberal revival in past years has proved to be illusory, and for well attested reasons.
Our custom of a Government and an official Opposition as an alternative government, makes the present twoparty arrangement almost irreplaceable providing no majcr party splits into mutually hostile sections, and no change in our 'first past the winning poet' electoral system occurs. By-election successes by a third party are no guide to the result of a general election when voters choose between one of only two possible Administrations. The manifest unpopularity of Mr Heath's Ministry and the fact that the alternative (Labour) party will promise to re-negotiate our contract with the EEC and cut the cost of living, including that of house-purchase, almost certainly ensures its victory — possibly with a majority of 1945 proportions. In so decisive a landslide there will be no necessity for Liberals in a coalition, so why does Mr Cosgrave waste his readers' time and his own in speculating on so obscurantist a theme?
G. I. Lewis University College of Swansea, Glamorgan
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