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Indeed, Labor's domestic program "to move Britain 25 years in the next five, industrially, educationally, socially" seemed on the whole as fresh and appealing to the public as it was clearly disconcerting to the Tories. Last week's Gallup poll, taken before the Labor Party conference, narrowed Labor's lead over the Tories from 13.5% to 11%, and a decrease in the Don't-Knows column suggested that wavering Conservative voters were returning to the fold. Nonetheless, if Labor's plurality holds up at the polls, Labor could have a margin of more than 200 seats in Parliament. The Liberals, who plan to run 400 candidates in the election, may prove an additional threat to the government, since they usually capture two Tory votes to every Labor ballot.
The Tories, who gathered for their annual conference at Blackpool this week, were begging party officials "to get them inspired." There was no doubt about the Labor delegates' mood as they bellowed The Red Flag ("Come dungeon dark or gallows grim/ This song shall be our parting hymn") and hit the road to Jerusalem. The wind of change from Scarborough was infectious. "Me vote Tory?" exclaimed one Soho pub pundit. "That would be like Noah picketing the flood."
True, Harold Wilson is still something of an enigma to the public. On the other hand, Britons may find Wilson's grey manner and grim reputation a welcome change after the government's all-too Old-Boy handling of the Profumo affair. "Wilson doesn't seem very nice," mused one Londoner last week. "Good. That's what we need now. A round little P.M. with a pipe—and a dash of nastiness."
* Named for Ned Ludd, a Leicestershire halfwit, whose famed attacks on machines at the turn of the 19th century helped to inspire roving bands of wreckers who blamed mechanized weaving for widespread unemployment.
* Christine bobbed back last week at a magistrate's pre-trial hearing of perjury and conspiracy charges against her in the "Lucky" Gordon case. Gordon, one of her West Indian lovers, was sentenced to three years in jail (and later released) on Christine's testimony that he had beaten her. After three days and three different versions of the beating, the hearing was adjourned for three weeks.