Defeat
For the 1959 general election, Morris' seat was one of most high-profile marginal seats in the country. He had Aneurin Bevan to open his campaign, and attacked the Conservative Government for increasing unemployment. However, the Conservatives also had high-profile support including from Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. Local people were thought to be against nationalisation and Swansea Council had embarked on a controversial plan of comprehensive education to which Morris was tied by virtue of his high rank within the council leadership. An energetic young Conservative candidate, Hugh Rees defeated Morris by 403 votes.
Morris remained Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Swansea County Borough Council. Immediately after the election one Labour Alderman moved a motion protesting against remarks by Field-Marshal Lord Montgomery who had questioned the sanity of people who intended to vote for the Labour Party. Morris argued that as Montgomery "had had the grace to apologise, the committee should have equal grace to accept the apology".
Read more about this topic: Percy Morris
Famous quotes containing the word defeat:
“A self-denial, no less austere than the saint’s, is demanded of the scholar. He must worship truth, and forgo all things for that, and choose defeat and pain, so that his treasure in thought is thereby augmented.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“And, “Better defeat almost,
If seen clear,
Than life’s victories of doubt
That need endless talk-talk
To make them out.””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)