From the corridor outside the committee room in the House of Commons, the sound of muffled shouts and strident interjections suggested a pitched battle. But it was only a meeting of 253 Laborite M.P.s, debating whether Hugh Gaitskell should be re-elected leader of Britain's Labor Party.
Gaitskell was indeed battling for his political life. At the Labor Party conference at Scarborough last month, Gait-skell's foes had rammed through a resolution endorsing unilateral nuclear disarmament for Britain. Defiantly, Gaitskell, a determined supporter of NATO, refused to accept the vote as official Labor policy or...