It took a large team, subsidised by the Milord Foundation, much arduous statistical fiddling to get this result. However, summarised on the back of an envelope it can be seen that: (a) 66.5% of the population in 1848 were Chartists and/or wholly sane, (b) the only wholly sane, and therefore Chartist, candidate in 1959 (Coun. Lawrence Daly)polled 11% of the total, (c) this gives us 1% per annum drift, with an error of 0.25%, probably attributable to leap-years. For a full summary of our conclusions, see our forthcoming article in the ” American Journal of Communicational Guphology.”
This is an extract from a Pessay on Ephology by E P Thompson that appeared in the final autumn 1959 issue of the New Reasoner. It merged with Universities and Left Review to become the New Left Review in 1960.
Lawrence Daly who stood as an independent socialist in Fife went on to become a leading figure in the NUM
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