England Our England: Half a Cheer (No More) for British Labour

HOW CAN ANYBODY raise more than about one-half of a cheer for the tattered British Labour party? Few Britons would go that far. Seeing themselves as condemned to five years of Hard Labour, they are more likely to hiss or laugh derisively. However, an American Anglophile fresh from the bloody arena of American politics can find a little virtue in the lesser evil.

Hopes ran high in 1964 when, after 13 year of Opposition, Labour returned to power. Those hopes have largely been dashed. More of us should have remembered Aneuran Bevan’s anguished cry: “We are socialists out of power and tories in power.” Well, yes, but it’s a matter of degree. No one called the colorless but conscientious Attlee, Clem MacDonald;...