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Though he is too young for most Tory tastes, Chancellor of the Exchequer Maudling, 45, may yet be a contender for Prime Minister if he can perform well in his present job, the toughest in Britain's government. Party Chairman Iain Macleod, 49, who has been in the doldrums the past year, would not be out of the running if he could repeat his brilliant success as top Tory strategist in the 1959 election. Not since Lord Salisbury in 1895 has Britain had a Prime Minister from the House of Lords. However, if the government, as expected, passes a bill permitting peers to sit in the House of Commons (TIME, Dec. 28), Lord Hailsham might emerge as the strongest candidate of all.
After the tragic loss of its leader last week, Labor's chances are an unknown quantity. Gaitskell's death by heart failure after his mysterious virus attack was a crushing blow, for it was only in 1961 that he finally managed to end Labor's strident schisms and present it as a cohesive, contemporary party capable of governing Britain. The agonizing questions that now face Labor—and the nation—are whether 1) Gaitskell's absence will fragment its hard-won unity, and 2) his successor as party leader can project himself as a future Prime Minister.
By unhappy coincidence, the reviving Liberal Party will go into the election with the same slogan as Labor, "Get Britain Moving," which both parties, of course, lifted from the New Frontier. The Liberal Party has already put up 320 candidates (average age: 38), 67% more than it ran in the 1959 general election, and will probably wind up with 400 or more. Liberal Party Leader Jo Grimond, 49, a witty, tireless campaigner, appeals most strongly to middle-class voters, but is sufficiently radical to attract many Labor supporters. Despite the Liberals' bright, humane image, most disgruntled Conservatives who have voted for the party at by-elections will probably return to the Tory fold if the economy has rallied by election time. The Liberals will probably gain only a handful of seats in the Commons (present strength: seven), but they could decide whether the Tories or Laborites win if the election is closely contested.
Under the ceremonious surface of private and public life in Britain, the nation's pulse last week was already beating faster in anticipation of the election campaign. Britons, who look back with distaste on the cynical huckstering that marked the 1959 campaign, sense now that the nation is nearing a historic threshold. Seldom have so many momentous issues converged at one time, or so many established institutions been so sharply challenged. The impending debate will determine the military and economic role that Britain is to play in the world. It will affect the loyalties and pocketbooks of some 728 million Commonwealth citizens. Inevitably, it will either uphold or repudiate the vision of a united Continent, which is still the noblest dream of millions of Europeans and Englishmen.