Humiliation in Britain

Before last week’s by-election in a rural bellwether constituency in Wales, Great Britain’s ruling Conservative Party held 396 seats in the House of Commons. The Conservative candidate came in a poor third, but the Tories still have a commanding 140-vote majority. And Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher need not call a general election for three more years.

But the Conservatives have suffered a humiliating setback going far beyond the mathematical count. The big gainer is the Social Democratic-Liberal Party Alliance.

Two years ago the Tory candidate won handily with 48% of the vote. This time the Conservative share of the vote fell to a dismal 28%; Liberal Richard Livsey came in first, and the Labor Party candidate a close second.

British political experts believe that the election was an indication that the public is turning against the prime minister’s tough economic policies and the prospect of continuing high unemployment under her leadership. The results also suggest that the Alliance, not Labor, was the chief beneficiary of the turn against Thatcher.

The Alliance, however, has a long way to go. If the present trend continues, the most likely result of a general election would be a hung Parliament--with Labor holding the most seats but short of a majority, and a strengthened Alliance holding the balance of power.

For the United States and Britain’s other allies, this would be an unsettling development, though preferable to a Labor government with a clear majority. The Social Democratic-Liberal Alliance is in fundamental support of the Atlantic Alliance and a responsible British role in Europe. Despite some moderating noises from the party leader-ship, the same cannot be said of the Labor Party.