seeel cannot agree with your able defence of the view that socialists should work for the success of the official Labour Party candidate in the North Hull by-election, You contend that the left can only hope to affect policy on Vietnam, or other scandals, if the present Government is confirmed in office, Let us agree for present purposes that all the "Radical" votes come from electors who would otherwise have voted Labour. To show that your conclusions would still be wrong, please imagine two possible results of the by-election (the second I fear more far-fetched than the first): (a) Richard Gott gets only fifty votes, while Macnamara holds or increases the Labour Party votes (b) Richard Gott get 5,000 votes and Macnamara loses the seat.
Then just ask - which result would encourage Wilson to suppose that he has overwhelming popular support for his present policies, and which might persuade him that he has to change course sharply if he is to be able to g0 on seeing the Queen every few days?
Yours ete,
Tony Young (Ilford)