Four weeks ago, Anthony Eden's Tories got the shock of their lives in the Kent countryside of Tonbridge. Presumably no district in all England could be rated safer for the Tories; in last year's general election, it went Tory by 10,196 votes. Yet, in a by-election at Tonbridge in June, the Tory candidate squeaked through by only 1,602 votes.
Tory second-guessers were quick with explanations: poor local organization, the natural apathy of Conservative voters when their party is securely in power, a purely parochial resentment against national headquarters for bypassing a favorite son in favor of an outsider. But underlying all...