ABSTRACT

One month after the debate on the Beveridge Report, Britain engaged in a miniature general election. Few realized its significance. 1942 had witnessed the advent of hybrid Independents, but 1943 was the year of the socialists and/or Labour. Their message? "Beveridge in full now." Party leaders in the coalition honored their pledge not to contest by-elections. To check enthusiasm for Independents, a standard letter was sent to constituents in each contest pleading for unity: ''The verdict recorded by a single constituency is flashed around the world as though it were the voice of Britain that had spoken .... "Voters were exhorted to mobilize their total resources for victory, to give Hitler no cause for congratulation, endangering the government by rocking the boat. 1 Yet the voice of Britain would not be silenced. Within the year Churchill himself found it necessary to intervene in a leftist attempt to break the Cavendish stranglehold in West Derbyshire. His failure led Aneurin Bevan to comment: "This is merely the immortal tragedy of all public life that the hero's need of the people outlasts their need of him."2