Great Britain: The Lost Leader

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Although Macmillan has systematically eliminated rivals by giving them thankless tasks or sacking them, the Tories have a number of highly plausible successors. Currently in the lead (Daily Express odds: 4-7) is Chancellor of the Exchequer Reginald Maudling, who is youthful (46) and ready to take credit for a predicted economic spurt this summer. He is also happily married, a particularly useful qualification right now. Next are Deputy Prime Minister "Rab" Butler (2-1), who has all the necessary experience, but at 60 may have been around too long; and Lord Hailsham, bellicose, blimpish Science Minister, 55, whose hopes faded rapidly when the government said that its lords reform bill, which would permit him to sit in the Commons, would not be introduced this summer. Ted Heath, 46, is generally ruled out because he is associated with the Common Market failure, and besides, he is a bachelor.

What Next? Any one of these Tories could give Labor a good fight in the next election, which does not have to be held till the fall of 1964. But Laborites feel themselves closer to power than they have at any time in the last dozen years. At week's end Harold Wilson returned to the attack in the Commons, demanding an investigation of the Profumo case by a parliamentary select committee with sweeping powers. The more limited judicial inquiry proposed by Macmillan, cried Wilson, was merely "a cover-up," because, without authority to compel proof or the attendance of witnesses, it would have to collect evidence "from some of the most unmitigated liars in this country."

Were there any more revelations to come? Wilson wanted to know. Nothing he knew of right now, said Macmillan, but he added: "I have heard terrible things said of all sorts of people." The most authoritative source of all, Christine herself, volunteered: "Apart from those I have already mentioned in my story, I do not know and have not met any ministers."

Macmillan recovered his composure. "They have deeply wounded me," he told a Tory rally, adding: "It will not break my spirit." But the House still remembered the words of Tory Rebel Nigel Birch, who during the big debate had quoted Browning's The Lost Leader at Harold Macmillan:

Let him never come back to us!

There would be doubt, hesitation and pain.

Forced praise on our part—the glimmer of twilight.

Never glad confident morning again!