Abstract
The outlook for the Conservatives in the months immediately after October 1959 could hardly have been more buoyant. The party had just won its third successive electoral victory, and had a leader whose standing with the public showed every sign of continuing to rise. The economy was expanding rapidly and, despite the summit debacle of May 1961, Britain continued to exert substantial influence in world affairs. The 1959 intake of new Conservative M.P.s included many able younger men whose presence on the back benches boded well for the future. By contrast, the Labour party — divided, demoralised and increasingly absorbed in abstruse questions of party doctrine — seemed bent on self-destruction. It was in this mood that Mr. Macleod addressed the 1960 Conservative conference:
‘The Socialists can scheme their schemes and the Liberals can dream their dreams; but we at least have work to do.’
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Notes
Its effect on Conservative morale was out of all proportion to its intrinsic significance. The results in other by-elections held the same day — Rutherglen, Winchester and Bury St. Edmunds — showed swings to Labour as high as the previous autumn. Somehow Labour and the Conservatives appeared to have convinced both themselves and the press that Devizes was more important than the other three. It probably mattered that the Devizes result came in first. On the recovery of Conservative morale in the early summer, see ‘The Tory Revival’ by David Watt, Spectator, July 24th, 31st, 1964.
See Samuel Brittan, The Treasury under the Tories, 1951–1964, Penguin, 1964, pp. 86–7. Mr. Brittan comments: ‘The decision to publish was taken… in the heat of a pre-election campaign despite a good deal of official head-shaking.’
For a radical view of the problem, see Peter Goldman, The Welfare State, Michael Joseph, 1964.
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© 1965 D. E. Butler and Anthony King
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Butler, D.E., King, A. (1965). Conservatives in Travail. In: The British General Election of 1964. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-81741-2_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-81741-2_6
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