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138
Political parties
Turn from the Two Main Parties
The British electoral system has lost the one virtue its admirers claimed for it's –
the ability to provide a
stable Parliamentary majority, albeit one supported by only a minority of the voters. Despite all the pressures to
encapsulate political opinion around the two main parties, their combined total of the poll, 76 per cent, was
lower than at any General Election since 1929. Nevertheless between them they captured
94 per cent of the
seats.
The turn away from the two big parties manifested itself in 1973 at by-elections and the elections for the
new Country and District Councils, with the Liberals making gains, largely at Tory expense. At its 33rd
Congress in November 1973, the Communist Party warned, «Loss of Tory support has not meant an automatic
increase in Labour support. There is a certain disenchantment with both major parties and the rigid two-party
system, with the Liberals gaining, at least temporarily, on the local councils and in Parliament.»
The decline of support for the two big parties during the life-time of the Heath government was
accompanied by the loss of confidence in the democratic institutions and in their ability to exercise effective
control over the enormous power of the industrial and commercial giants operating against the general social
interest.
Meanwhile the British economy was plunging into its most serious crisis for many years. The trendy, get-
rich-quick merchant bankers and businessmen who leapt straight from the City boardrooms to the Cabinet room
in 1970 had revealed themselves to be remarkably inept in governing the country. Accustomed to their
boardroom decisions being carried out immediately by a hierarchy of flunkies, they behaved as though the
electorate were theirs to command.
(The Book of Britain 1977, by Reuben Falber)
Windsor
Windsor and the surrounding district is a delightful residential locality. Apart from the existence of the
Castle itself and the pomp and ceremonial with which it is at times concerned, its attractions are many. An
excellent service of trains enables London to be reached in about forty-five minutes; the Great Park and Forest
stretching for miles are free to those who care to walk or ride; the Thames provides boating for the Summer
months; opportunities for the younger generations of both sexes abound; a large portion of the Home Park is set
aside for the public recreation; several first-class golf courses are close at hand.
There are two Windsors – Old Windsor and New Windsor. The former is a village about two miles away
from the town, and undoubtedly had an existence long before William the Conqueror built his stronghold on the
present site of the Castle. It had been pretty well established that the Saxon Kings had a Palace at Old Windsor,
which then bore the name of Wyndleshore. A township of some extent existed there prior to the Conquest, and
in the Conqueror's reign it contained a hundred houses.
New Windsor grew up with the Castle. The first Charter of Incorporation was granted to the Royal Borough
by Edward I, in 1276. When first incorporated it was the Country Town of Birkshire, but as its situation at an
extreme end of the County was found to be inconvenient, the distinction was transferred to Reading in 1314.
From the days of Edward I until Parliamentary Representation Act of 1918 Windsor was also a
Parliamentary Borough. Its right to send two representatives to the House of Commons was exercised until the
Reform Act of 1867 deprived it of one of its members, and, in order that its population might be sufficiently
large to allow of its retaining one representative, portions of the Village of Clewer and the Town of Eton were
added to its Parliamentary area. The Act of 1918 referred to deprived Windsor of its remaining Member of