left , right &amp; centre . split over Africa - welcome news - non-racialism . the deep split in the conservative party over Africa gives me no joy . much too much is at stake for that . make no mistake about it , the divisions are very serious and the revolt against the government is grave . Lord Salisbury is a power in the conservative party and he has used intemperate language - much more vigorous than at the time of his resignation over Munich . ninety conservatives , despite all sorts of pressure , have kept their names to a motion on the order paper in the House of Commons that is critical of Mr Macleod , the colonial Secretary . Lord Hailsham would never have counter-attacked Lord Salisbury with such bitterness , unless this was a split that worries the government . to accuse the most respected tory of them all of hitting below the belt is going very far . do not yield . labour will defend the government against these high-born and influential rebels . this does not mean that we wholly agree with the government &apos;s policy nor with the way they have handled things . the Prime Minister in particular has given the impression to the Europeans in Rhodesia that he has hoodwinked and deceived them . but it is essential that the government should stand firm . if they yield an inch , Britain may well have an Algeria on its hands . that &apos;s why we will not exploit this deep split , but back the government against the rebellion in its ranks . gag . the government has decided to curtail and guillotine debate on the health service charges . a government must of course in proper circumstances use the means necessary to get its business through . but are the present circumstances proper ? if a government introduces highly controversial legislation , it must expect to lose parliamentary time . especially when it has no parliamentary mandate . the bill is a short one . it is also a tax-measure that ought to be fully discussed . the government has used the guillotine out of fear . it did not like the publicity that labour &apos;s vigorous opposition drew to the health charges . but , never fear , we will find plenty of ways of making our bitter opposition effective . Patrick Gordon Walker . items of news from the motor industry give the impression that trade is improving and that the employment position is better than it was a few weeks ago . this kind of news will be welcome not only in the car-building towns here in the midlands but also in the places where so many of the component parts are manufactured . the Minister of labour is reported to be taking a new initiative to improve industrial relations , for example , by bringing together both sides of the motor industry . it is to be hoped that both management and workers will be able to put forward constructive ideas which will help to push further into the background the dreaded threat of unemployment . housing progress . there are some interesting items from other directions as well as industry , particularly one about housing . by the end of this year one person in every four will be living in a post-war house . also , nearly a million people have been re-housed from slums since the government &apos;s drive started in 1956 . housing for old people is being increased and now accounts for nearly a third of all local government building . in the educational sphere , there is good progress . never before has there been such a big programme of school building . at the same time training college places are being doubled to get the extra teachers needed to do away with the evil of oversize classes . a good example of the advance in education is that there are now twice as many university students as in 1938 , and it is anticipated that by 1970 the number will have more than trebled . another angle of education , not always so well known , is that there are at present over 40,000 overseas students in the United Kingdom , many of them from commonwealth countries recently granted independence . Charles Dickens . what we want is a society where the individual matters , and not the colour of his skin or the shape of his nose . so wrote Mr Julius Nyerere , the chief Minister of Tanganyika , in last Sunday &apos;s observer , and he echoes a basic liberal belief . like Mr Nyerere , liberals want a non-racial commonwealth and a non-racial Britain . by the time you read this , we will know whether South Africa is or is not to remain in the commonwealth . liberals support those commonwealth statesmen who have demanded her expulsion . there can be no room for Dr Verwoerd &apos;s fascist police-state in the commonwealth . if South Africa is allowed to remain , Britain &apos;s prestige in Africa and Asia will dwindle as it did after the Suez escapade . further , Dr Verwoerd will be regarded in South Africa as having won a great victory . this is surely something we want to prevent . immigration . some four-hundred years ago , Europeans - including Englishmen - carried off many of the people of west Africa into slavery , to work the plantations of the West Indies . now , the descendants of those slaves have multiplied , and those tiny islands are bursting at the seams . Jamaica has 20 per cent unemployment , and it is not surprising that many of her people are coming to Britain . the welfare of these people is our responsibility . I suggest the following comprehensive plan to deal with the so-called immigration problem - to a large extent simply a housing problem . ( 1 . ) it should be illegal to enforce a colour-bar in Britain in public places . ( 2 . ) the government should attempt to persuade Canada and Australia to open their doors to West Indian immigrants - and thus relieve the pressure on living space in Britain and in the West Indies . ( 3 . ) there should be a medical check on all immigrants ; criminals should not be admitted ; and all immigrants should obtain a reasonable place to live in before landing . the help of voluntary associations , such as the British-Caribbean association , should be enlisted to find accommodation for immigrants . ( 4 . ) could not Smethwick council follow the example of Willesden by establishing an international friendship council to fight racialism ? - Michael Watts . left , right &amp; centre . withdrawing the whip - local issues - liberal advance . the parliamentary labour party took the grave step last week of withdrawing the whip from five of its members . what does withdrawing the whip mean ? it is not , as is often thought , expulsion from the party . those five members remain members of the labour party and of course , members of parliament . but they are no longer recognised as belonging to the parliamentary labour party : they do not come to its meetings , nor are they informed of its decisions . when the whip is withdrawn , this fact is reported to the national executive committee . this is in order that the local parties of the members concerned can be officially informed . why ? the fundamental reason for this action was that these five members deliberately defied a decision taken and three times reaffirmed by the parliamentary labour party as a whole . there is much liberty in the parliamentary labour party - much more than in the ordinary labour group on a council . members can ask what questions they like , speak as they wish and they can always abstain from voting . this should be liberty enough for the most tender conscience . the line is only drawn at voting against a clear decision of the party meeting . without this rule , there would be no discipline at all ; the party would be a mob . every labour group recognises this . MPs who can not accept this degree of discipline are really independent MPs . withdrawal of the whip makes them this in form as well as in fact . against estimates . the five can not justly claim that they were voting in accord with conference decisions . this was done by the whole party when it voted solidly against the defence white paper . the five voted against the defence estimates . it has long been clear party policy that this should not be done . it would be open to public misunderstanding . the five did not vote against the tories . what they voted against was the whole army and the whole air force . no conference decision ever justified such action . the labour party is fundamentally more united than before . it is not the withdrawal of the whip that causes new disunity : but the deliberate defiance by five members of decisions by the party . Patrick Gordon Walker . among those who like talking politics , and who have been mainly concerned with African problems these last few weeks , interest will soon be turning to local issues as the time draws near for the election of councillors at the several levels of local government . this year there will be county council , urban district , rural district and parish council elections as well as those for the county boroughs - like Smethwick - and the non-county municipal boroughs . interest should also be increased this year as the ordinary elections will be followed by the elections by councillors of their aldermen . the Prime Minister , speaking at a recent rally in London , said on the subject of local government : we put first and foremost the idea of a working partnership between central and local government in which each side does its proper part . co-operation . to carry out properly and effectively many of the aims of the government depends upon such a real working arrangement at national and local levels . the development of the social services is a good example of the need for close co-operation ; whilst the government can bring forward legislation at parliamentary level , the work of ensuring that such services are put into operation depends to a great extent on the local authority . to strengthen local government and equip it better to fulfil its growing responsibilities , the government introduced the general grant , with no strings attached . this improvement in the way of dealing with financial grants has freed local councils from much detailed control from Whitehall . consequently , the councils have more responsibility and should have a greater incentive to spend wisely the money they receive from the local people in the form of rates , and from the taxpayers in the form of government grants . the general grant takes account of the cost of local services and has been substantially increased each year since its introduction . it will be &amp;pound;25 million higher in 1961-62 than this year in England and Wales . Charles Dickens . liberals made another spectacular advance in last week &apos;s by-elections . in all four contests the liberal vote rose , while both tory and socialist votes slumped badly . if we compare the figures in these by-elections with those of the last three-cornered fights , we find that the total liberal vote was up by 13,601 . the total conservative vote was down by 15,633 , and the total labour vote was down by 22,972 . the swing to the liberals was seven per cent in Colchester , nine per cent at Cambridgeshire , 10 per cent at High Peak , and over 20 per cent at Worcester . achievement . the liberal achievement is all the more remarkable when one remembers the disadvantages under which the liberal candidates worked . they were backed only by voluntary subscriptions , and could not , like the tory and labour parties , draw on subsidies from big business or the big trade unions . moreover , these liberal candidates had no mass circulation newspapers to support them . in the by-election period the mass circulation papers enforced a censorship on all liberal views and speeches . when Jo Grimond spoke to a rally of over 2,000 liberals in London , only the guardian reported the meeting . after the death of the news chronicle all the anti-Liberal papers suffered from an epidemic of fair-mindedness in an effort to win new readers . the daily herald announced itself to be fair and free and even the daily express printed an article by Jo Grimond . those days are now over . the tory papers have returned to their usual practice of reporting only tory views , and the labour papers print only labour views . it is left to independent papers like the guardian and local papers like the telephone to preserve the freedom of the press . 