Evening star., 1950-03-11
Mr.. AttIee's Precorious Perch

Although they have won their first vote-of-
confidence test against the combined opposi-
tlon OF the Conservatives and Liberals, Prime
Minister Attlee and the Laborites obviously can
derive little comfort from their victory From
now on, under the British parliamentary system,
they will be obliged to walk kind of legislative
tightrope in an effort to survive any number of
such showdowns, with no certainty-from one
day to the next-about the outcome.
The first test involved the issue of national
izing the iron and steel industry. The law for
that project-scheduled to go into effect in
Octooer-is already on the books. AS soon as
the new Parliament convened, however Mr..
Churchill and his Conservatives, with the sup
port of the Liberals, served notice that unless
the Attlee government agreed to keep the whole
undertaking In a state of suspension until at
least nine months after the next general eec-
tion, they would press for the kind of vote that
could force the immediate downfall of the
Laborites.
Mr.. Attlee promptly accepted this challenge
by refusing to agree. Thereupon the Conserva-
tives demanded-and got-a test on motion
regrettng that the Kings speech was silent on
the future of the iron and steel industry. AL
though the Labortes triumphed by narrow
margin, they are threatened with a similar
showdown on Monday, when the House of Com
HioLS Will Jake dCGlOn OH d proposal CTlGlClZlng
them for their record in the field of housing.
And even If they again come out on top-as seems
probabe-they will still face the prospect of
numerous other vote confidence challenges,
with steel naturalization likely to pop up again
and again one of the crucial testing issues.
In the circumstances, with their razor-thin
majority-a majority that can fall apart at any
time either because of defections individual ILL.,
nesSeS or other incidents depicting party ranks
when some vital matter comes up for vote
the Laborites can be expected to make caution
their watchword Thus, in an effort to keep
showdowns to Minimum they have already
indicated that they will temporarily shelve
action on their campaign promises to enact new
laws for the naturalization of additional in
dustrfeS, and there is reason to believe that they
will do little to implement the law on iron and
STEEL
Conceivably, by thus making haste slowly and
holding back on further socialization the Attlee
government may be able to stay in power for a
considerable time and succeed in getting neces-
sary action in such non-partisan fields as foreign
policy and national defense. This possibility is
strengthened by the fact that the Conservatives
themselves seem to have grounds for trying to
dodge decisive showdown, because even If they
forced and won new national election at this
stage, their majority might turn out to be every
bit as slim as the one the Laborites have now.
Nevertheless the fact remains that the Labor
Party has parliamentary edge of only six seats.
Politics in Britain, more or less like own,
is frequently unpredictable, and no one over
there-includng Mr.. Attlee on his precarious
perch-can be sure that some issue will not arise
all of a sudden to upset the present uneasy
equilibrium and oblige the people of the United
Kingdom to go to the polls again in effort
to elect government with majority big
enough to be workable.