T H E 5 October 1974

The international Catholic weekly 15p

TABT,F,T Election special: articles by Shirley Williams, Norman St John-Stevas, Christopher Hollis and Rudi Weisweiller Reporting the Synod: Thomas Corbishley The Conservative nation: Hugh Fraser William o f Ockham’s polit ics: David Knowles

The via media in politics It has been the consistent view of this paper that this general election is unnecessary, divisive and distracting and that no magic answers can be expected to emerge from the ballot box. We have wondered how Mr Wilson, in the same breath, could claim that his government has achieved all that it had set out to achieve in its first six months and yet needed a mandate to implement his programme. We remarked that Mr Heath’s election call at the beginning of this year had been likewise unnecessary since he was at that time possessed of a mandate and had a workable majority to see it through. Could the country afford, we asked, this call for an all-ornothing support from the two main opposing parties, both periodically prone to upset the programmes of the defeated rival, leaving industry and the country as a whole in a state of uncertainty as to who would next be governing it?

to a special kind of integrity that would never sacrifice basic principles to any base practice. Mrs Williams, a minister in the last Labour government, is matched by Mr Norman St John Stevas, Shadow Minister for Education in opposition at the same time. The third, Mr Hollis, is no longer a member of Parliament but was a distinguished back-bencher for many years on the Conservative side and has recently moved over to the Liberals.

The emergence of the Liberal Party as a third force, and one pledged to proportional representation, has presaged the possibility and the workability of a minority government, depending on the coalition of one or other of the three parties as well as on minority groups in Parliament. So our argumentation led us by steps to support the idea of coalition.

The statements are not intended, of course, to be complete summaries of the views of their respective parties. It will be seen that all three turn on the merits of what Mrs Shirley Williams wittily calls “two superficially attractive beasts: the g n u and the g o a t —the Government of National Unity and the Government of all the Talents.” In this way they have narrowed the debate which will be a welcome relief to readers bewildered by a flurry of claims and counter-claims. It will help readers to come to a decision about what is- for us at least—the fundamental issue; whether the country is to see a continuance of the present system (which we think is showing dangerous signs of breakdown) or to have the opportunity to develop a more representational government of the centre more characteristic of the British genius.

National unity is, by common consent, the paramount need. Those who desire the end must also desire the means and, in last week’s leader, we said that even if this election achieves no clear cut result, it will have served some purpose if electors have been forced to ask the politicians what practical steps they were prepared to take to make something real of the idea of national unity.

In this issue readers will be able to consider the views of representatives of the three main parties. They are all convinced and articulate Catholics so far as their religion goes. We publish their views not because we think that there is such a thing as a Catholic policy applicable to the problems of this country but because we know that they are all pledged

As a joker in the pack, we have added a contribution from Mr Rudi Weisweiller who, from his considerable experience of the world of finance and economics, offers points from a programme which is not in strict political alignment with any particular party but which is worthy of consideration by all three or by any two in coalition. If, on 10 October, the country opts for a situation where the voice of the independent specialist may be heard in this way, it will have advanced a step in self-knowledge, and in so doing offered an example to many other countries—of whom our oldest ally, Portugal, is a case in point—now wracked by the results of over-fanatical dogmas of right and left.