Roy Jenkins wins, and the Social Democrats regain momentum
For 29 years he had been a Labor member of Parliament. He had served capably as Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer in postwar Labor governments, and had gone on to four years of distinguished duty as president of the Brussels-based European Commission, the executive arm of the ten-nation European Community. But from his post in Brussels he gradually became disenchanted with Labor's inexorable leftward drift. In 1979 he put forward the heretical proposition that Britain needed a new party of the center, occupying the middle ground between Labor and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's right-leaning Conservative government. Home again last year, he joined other like-minded Laborites, including former Foreign Secretary David Owen and onetime Education Secretary Shirley Williams, to form the new Social Democratic Party.
Last week Roy Jenkins reaped his reward. In a hard-fought, down-to-the-wire battle in the well-heeled but wary Glasgow constituency of Hillhead, he emerged with 33.4% of the ballot, 2,038 votes ahead of the second-place Conservative candidate. Jenkins quickly acknowledged the support of the small Liberal Party and its leader, David Steel, who cemented an alliance with the S.D.P. last September. The win, exulted Jenkins, was a "triumph of the new deal of sense, moderation and hope we have offered."
If that is true, British politics is in for a historic shock. Ever since party alignments emerged in the wake of the 17th century civil war, Britain's political battles have been basically two-party clashes—between Whigs and Tories in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, between Liberals and Conservatives in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and between Laborites and Conservatives since then. Though the S.D.P.-Liberal alliance has only 41 mem bers in Parliament (twelve Liberals, 29 Social Democrats), including Jenkins' new seat from Hillhead, its prospects induced euphoria. "I want to offer a new choice to the people of Britain," said Jenkins last week. "If that means offering myself as Prime Minister, then I am willing to do it." With general elections due no later than June 1984, the new allies present a powerful third force.
Just how powerful is yet to be determined, since the appeal of the alliance has fluctuated considerably in opinion polls during the past four months. In December a survey by Market and Opinion Research International showed the Social Democrats riding high as favorites of 44% of the electorate. In early March, though, just after the Thatcher government had produced its something-for-everybody budget, the S.D.P.-Liberal share had fallen sharply to 27%, placing the party third after the Tories and Labor.
Jenkins' victory margin belied the close race that preceded it. Right up to election day, opinion polls gave him at best a slight edge over his rivals. In the end, it seemed, it was the sheer accumulation of smiles and shoe leather and handclasps that put him over the top. At times exuberant with enthusiasm, at other moments almost weighed down with weariness, the 61-year-old political veteran toured the streets with the doggedness of a fledgling candidate standing for his first seat.