And Then There Were Two

Shortly before his election last fall, Prime Minister Harold Wilson was asked what would happen if Labor won by a tiny majority. "We won't discuss nightmares like that," he snapped. The nightmare came true, and it has had Labor strategists tossing in their sleep ever since. Last week there was more reason than ever for restless nights, for Labor's three-vote margin in Parliament was trimmed to two by the death of Labor M.P. Norman Dodds, 61.*

Actually, Labor can do without any margin at all just now, since Parliament is in recess, and the government will call a by-election before it reconvenes Oct. 26. Dodds represented a working-class Thameside constituency that returned him last fall with a healthy majority of 8,855 votes, and would probably endorse a Laborite again. But thanks to the election of new Conservative Leader Ted Heath, and Labor's harsh anti-inflationary measures, the latest Gallup poll puts the Tories 7% ahead of Labor. There is just a ghost of a chance that a Tory might capture Dodds's seat, reducing Wilson's majority to a grand total of one.

Three more aging Labor M.P.s are also ailing, including critically ill Frank Hayman, 70, who was elected from a constituency in Cornwall last fall by the distinctly thin margin of only 2,926 votes. The sick list is a constant topic for "the ghoul school" of Tory strategists, who point out that 80 of Wilson's M.P.s are over 60, and add that since he is bound to wind up a minority Prime Minister by death or accident anyway, he might as well resign now. Laborites sometimes sound as though they were telling sick jokes in Whitehall. When they hear one of their number is home in bed, instead of wanting to know what is wrong with him, they ask, "What's his majority?"

* Labor's original majority was four. It was raised to five when a Conservative was elected nonvoting Speaker of the House, but dropped to three in January when Wilson's prospective foreign secretary lost the "safe" Labor constituency of Leyton, and thus gave another seat to the Tories in a by-election.

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