After-dinner Sleep
Page 48
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F, 4 VEN the expected sometimes finds one unprepared Nobody thought that the margin between
the two principal parties would be great after the General Election. When the voters obliged by providing almost a dead heat, everybody seemed taken by surprise. For commercial-vehicle users, the next few months are likely to be difficult. Caught at the point of intersection of two equally matched parties, they find themselves in a kind of purgatory, poised midway between free enterprise and nationalization.
Opponents ot nationalization regard it as a creeping blight that can sometimes be overcome if remedial measures be applied 'before it has gone too far. -During the administration of 1945-50, the blight took a firm grip on coal, gas, electricity and the railways. It laid its 'withering touch on road transport, and on iron and steel. Had a strong Socialist Government returned to power, it would certainly in the next five years have completed the conquest of road transport, iron and steel, and continued with the nationalization of cement, sugar, water undertakings, meat wholesaling, industrial assurance and chemicals.
. Envisaged Improvements
A main plank in the Conservative Party platform was opposition to nationalization. It goes without saying that a Tory majority would have left the threatened industries free. The return to private enterprise of coal, gas, electricity and the railways was not contern plated, although improvements were envisaged in the organization of these industries.
Road transport, and iron and steel, were named by the Conservatives as industries to be freed from blight at the earliest possible moment. The present political deadlock obscures the future of these industries much more than would have been the case in the event of a decided victory for either side.
It the election was fought partly on the issue of nationalization, the result leaves the issue in the balance. Another appeal must be made to the arbitration of the ballot box, and the general opinion is that the appeal cannot be long delayed.
Non-controversial Tasks
In the meantime, what is to be done with road transport? The present Parliament, short-lived though it may be, has to carry out certain essential, mainly non-controversial, tasks. Its survival is bound to depend upon an agreement by the Government not to bring forward any measure likely to stir up party passions. Cement, sugar and the rest may remain in a state of rather urieasy peace. Their life, like Claudio's, has:—
Li Nor youth nor age;
But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep, Dreaming on both."
The after-dinner sleep of iron and steel, and particularly of road transport, is much less assured. Following a violent Parliamentary tussle, the vesting day for the iron and steel industry was postponed until January 1, 1951, and the machinery leading up to that date will
begin to come into operation on October 1, 1950. Although it was officially denied that the postponement had anything to do with the General Election, the Government must have had some regard to the confusion certain to result from the hasty nationalization of iron and steel and the almost immediate reversal of the process had the Conservatives come to power.
One side favours State ownership; the other free enterprise. Neither would seriously suggest that the intermediate state of transition has any advantages, apart from being a necessary evil. If the Conservatives be determined to denationalize iron and steel, and have a reasonable chance of making good their word in a fairly short time, even the Socialists should admit the logic of staving off the operation of their own Iron and Steel Act at least until they are again in office with an unchallengeable majority.
No Great Consequence
Agreement, tacit or declared, to act along these lines may well be reached shortly as part of the price for enabling the present Parliament to function. If this be done, it is hoped that politicians will agree to include road transport in this compromise.
The election result has made no noticeable difference to the process of transport nationalization and restriction. The passenger area schemes "creep in their petty pace from day to day." Compulsory acquisition of road haulage undertakings goes on, and the 25-mile net is being drawn more and more closely. If another election in a few months' time favours the Socialists, the uninterrupted operation of the Transport Act during the interim period will be of no great consequence. On the other hand, a continuation of the recent decided Swing to the political right will find a few more knots to unravel before the pledge can be honoured of the restoration of road transport to free enterprise.
"Fairly and Squarely"
The obvious solution is to declare a truce, both free enterprise transport and British Transport Commission withdrawing to the position obtaining just before the General Election on February 23. Area passenger schemes would be taken no further. Acquisitions would cease forthwith, and where they had not been completed before polling day the owners would be allowed to resume possession. Applicants for original permits would be permitted to continue as if their applications had been granted.
The Labour Party's election manifesto affirms a belief in the advantages of allowing public and private enterprise to compete "fairly and squarely." This desirable state of affairs would be more nearly attained under the proposed flag of truce than under the present system, where the haulier and the passenger vehicle operator are progressively losing their freedom without the right to counter-attack. Competition would be stimulating and spirited, for each side would, feel that here was the final opportunity to prove its mettle. Nor would the B.T.C. have to sigh for lack of occupation. It can find plenty of room for improvements within its present organization