Knowing the ways of the British, I’m hardly expecting such a radical turn. I’m not even sure Chamberlain will have to leave the government right away. Nonetheless, vexation with the former PM is very intense.

The adoption of a new act by parliament on 22 May is another symptom of the anxiety seizing broad circles of the population. According to the new act, the British government has the right to mobilize and control the nation’s property and labour in the interests of the state. On paper, the law is very firm: the government can sequester or even confiscate any enterprise or plot of land, and can send any person to do any job should the interests of the war effort demand it. Somebody here has already spoken of this as ‘the introduction of socialism’ in England, carried out by peaceful means and within the space of just 2 hours and 43 minutes, the time needed to push the law through all the relevant legislature. See how intelligently they act, these clever Brits! Not like the wild, dishevelled Russians! Attlee, who tabled the motion in parliament, is being feted by many as the ‘creator of socialism’ in England.

All this, of course, is bourgeois demagogy. First, how will the law be implemented in practice? One need not be a prophet to foresee the actual course of events. Second, even if the law were to be implemented in a more or less serious way, it could create various forms of state capitalism, but not socialism, in England.

In addition to the law concerning the mobilization of property and labour (which only Gallacher and Kirkwood opposed), parliament passed, also unanimously, a law on ‘treason’, which significantly broadens the powers of the Home Office and effectively abolishes Habeas Corpus.

All is clear.