The Times Saturday October 12th 1974

Mr Thorpe seeks the reasons

From Christopher Walker, Barnstaple

Not bothering any longer to disguise his bitter disappointment at the election results, Mr Thorpe, the Liberal leader, wasted no time yesterday in beginning the painful task of analysing in depth the reasons for the failure of his party's most expensive and elaborate campaign.

Ostensibly spending the afternoon gardenlng at his north Devon cottage, a subdued and depressed Mr Thorpe was in telephone contact with a number of senior Liberal organisers including Mr Arthur Holt, the party chairman

Convinced that the Liberals ran an honest, and in media terms, effective campaign, Mr Thorpe was anxious to discover why the twin themes of a tough statutory incomes policy and a final breaking of the two party system had failed to convince the electorate.

Since his hovercraft first put to sea six weeks ago, Mr Thorpe has visited more than a hundred separate constituencies, so the Liberals' failure to make their promised breakthrough came as a severe personal shock.

Even before polling day, Mr Thorpe admitted privately that he had made a mistake in failing to concentrate more heavily against the Tories' lack of economic policies.

Yesterday, he said ; "We were the only party which said there had to he a prices and incomes policy backed by statutes. I think we might have been more challenging and aggressive on that because it was the great issue of the election.”

Mr Thorpe thinks now that the atmosphere of a crisis election increased polarisation.

"I think that people are frightened of inflation and I think they have, perhaps automatically, reacted by going back to the two other parties"

The bulk of Mr Thorpe's invective yesterday was reserved for Britain's 'obscene' electoral system.

"Once agaIn a government had been returned to which the majority of the electorate are opposed," he said, adding angrily; "I think it is a very ominous thing for democracy, that this result is the outcome of a British electoral system which we claim to be an advanced and mature democracy.”

Although few liberals regard Mr Thorpe's personal position as threatened, he has been subject to growing criticism inside the party for running his campaign throughout from rural Devon. "With six million votes and 619 candidates, many people felt he should have concentrated more nationally during the closing stages," an aide told me.

Last night in spite of the bleak national picture Mr Thorpe had to honour his pre-election pledge and take part in a torchlight procession to a rally in Barnstaple market, where earlier this week he had declared unequivocally that the number of Liberal MPs would be increased