Agreements between Local Political Parties in Local Government Matters
| Published date | 01 February 1957 |
| Author | W. Thornhill |
| Date | 01 February 1957 |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1957.tb00863.x |
| Subject Matter | Article |
NOTES
AND
REVIEW
ARTICLES
83
construction-one, that is, which is neutral as between particular persons-would clarify
the issues. It is stilted and unidiomatic in English to say, ‘It
is
permitted
. .
.’
or
‘It is for-
bidden
.
.
.’.
But do not the Latin terms
licet
and
noit
licet
throw a certain light on the
problems of Mr. Scott’s article?
If
so,
we may wonder just how far even the most careful
analysis
of
‘ordinary language’
or
‘everyday usage’ in a single tongue can take us towards
the understanding of those social and political phenomena
(if
any-and there are surely
some) which transcend linguistic frontiers.
AGREEMENTS BETWEEN LOCAL POLITICAL
PARTIES IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT MATTERS
W.
THORNHILL
University
of
Shefield
I
SOME
four years ago
a
dispute between local political parties in a provincial town drew
the author’s attention to the existence
of
a written agreement between the two parties with
regard
to
the sharing between them of the municipal offices.
As
this seemed rather unusual,
an inquiry has been conducted by means of questionnaires to ascertain the extent to which
agreements have been made by local political parties, and the nature of the arrangements
for which provision is made. Questionnaires were submitted to the secretaries
of
the local
conservative and labour parties for all counties, county boroughs, and metropolitan
boroughs, and for non-county boroughs with a population of more than
50,000,
The
response received is shown in Table
I.
TABLE
I
County
County
Non-County
Metropolitan
Councils
.
Boroughs
.
Boroughs
.
Boroughs
.
-
No.
62
83
56
28
-
-
Labour Party
Circs.
sent
out
62
83
54*
28
Replies
recd.
30
61
44
18
Con.
Party
__
Circs.
sent
out
62
83
56
28
Replies
recd.
32
49
36
15
Replies
recd.
Lab.
anc
Con.
1.5
35
27
12
Replies
recd.
Lab.
only
15
26
17
6
Replies
recd.
Cons.
only
17
14
9
3
No.
in
sample
41
15
53
21
--
*
Two non-county boroughs were known to have no labour councillors.
In a few cases, questionnaireswere returned by the clerks
or
chairmen
of
local authorities
saying that there was no party organization in the local authority. In some
of
these cases, it
was possible subsequently to obtain the names
of
the local party organizers and to get question-
naires completed.
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