South Yorkshire Times, November 4th 1944
Election in the Air
Since it seems that sooner or later we must resign ourselves to a resumption of the old party warfare, it was as well that Mr. Churchill this week took the opportunity to outline the time when, and the circumstances in which, a general election may be expected.
The stubborn step-by-step dissent of the Germans into the Teuton twilight which remorselessly encompasses them moves the Prime Minister to speak of victory in Europe not before March, April or May of next year. He takes the view that there should be no election before the conclusion of the European phase of the war, and that view will certainly be endorsed by British public opinion. It would be dangerous to change political horses in mid-stream, even though the farther bank looms invitingly close. The fight to the death with Nazism is no party issue and the country ought to be led by a united Parliament while ever there is any fight left within the battered Reich. Equally certainly the general election, when it comes, ought not to be rushed, and the inference is, therefore, that it may even be early autumn before the ballot boxes are brought into use. Mr. Churchill’s earnest insistence on the necessity for as many servicemen as possible, wherever they happen to be serving, to have the opportunity of voting, was an assurance that was expected.
All the same the men drafted abroad will welcome this categorical utterance. Whatever delay is imposed by implementing this proposal will be criticised only by the most rabid and ungrateful extremists. Parliament has had a long life in the present form, and the Prime Minister, like many others, recognises the need to go to the country as soon as the appeal may safely and conveniently be made. On the other hand, there has been a lot of irresponsible electioneering talk by some who could more profitably have spent their time in helping the government to press on the war to a speedy conclusion. It may be that some of those who have most loudly demanded this election and sought to expedite it, with scant reference to present expediency may find that it results in them being removed from the scene of their clamour by an electorate more concerned with the return of its too long exiled men folk than with the private reputations of professionally fractious politicians. If democracy is as alert as it ought to be, it will have marked those men who have deserved well of their country by their wartime parliamentary records, and those who have not.
As for the actual electioneering, this promises to be rather puzzling. If Japan remains to be finished off after the election, and if this phase of the war Is to take a further 18 months, as Missed Churchill thinks it may, it may be supposed that on all important issues the party programmes will vary but slightly. Presumably Conservative, Labour, and Liberal candidates will all be equally anxious to win the war, which must remain the prime consideration. Also, a very wide measure of agreement on many of the post-war social reforms has already been achieved, and as for the problems of establishing international peace on a firm basis, they can hardly be described as party issues. Even after victory in Europe conditions are unlikely to approximate to normal for quite a long time, and there is a good deal to be set for renewing the concept of a coalition government, though the perpetuation of the present Parliament may not be either desired or desirable. The war will leave us with a lot of lee-way to make up and common sense would seem to indicate exclusive employment of our national energies on these tasks rather than their dissipation on the exciting but not over profitable game of party politics.