GREAT BRITAIN: No Hand at the Helm?

Winston Churchill made a radio speech last week, his first to the British nation since the Tories were defeated in the 1945 election. More than at any time in the last two years, the British public wanted to know what, specifically, the Tories would do if they had power. Churchill was vague: “We would give you promptly and in good time the decisions which are necessary. . . .” He promised to “attack restrictive practices of all kinds.” What the British wanted to know was how he planned to do that. Even his best wishers could not pretend that Churchill had offered anything but highly generalized thunder.

As for Clement Attlee, he recalled his Cabinet ministers from holidays four days after Parliament had recessed. They held a secret, special Sunday evening meeting, presumably to consider new proposals to increase the food supply.

London’s Economist despaired: “Last week . . . the chief anxiety was whether the Government had a policy. Now, there is growing anxiety whether the country has a Government. … In difficult times the British people will always respond to strong leadership. By so much more are they likely to be dismayed by the discovery that there is no hand at all at the helm.”