WESTM STER HAUL.
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NOW all is clear. Discretionary action will be taken against road haulage firms found to be in breach of the pay guidelines, no matter what part of the country they are in.
The authority for this firm statement of Government policy — Joel Barnett, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, who must have weighed every word, for he was shedding light via a Commons written answer, not in an off-the-cuff remark during a heated debate.
Thank you Mr Barnett, especially for that very first word.
Discretion, according to one leading dictionary, means "Liberty of deciding as one thinks fit, absolutely, or within limits".
Which, some hauliers in the West Midlands or the North West might be uncharitable enough to claim, takes us back to square one.
But do not rush to condem Mr Barnett. He could hardly go further than his chief, Chancellor Denis Healey, who had been talking on the topic a few days earlier.
Speaking during yet another debate on pay policy sanctions he made the situation as clear as the windscreen of a car driving through rain on the heels of a lorry with no spray-guards.
Certainly some offending firms had escaped scot-free, but there was always a good reason. Ford, for instance, had made their deal before it became plain that sanctions would be necessary. A lift firm had continued to receive a temporary employment subsidy, otherwise men would have lost jobs.
There was, admitted the candid Chancellor, a handful of similar cases where pay policy had not been the only issue — for example. C of E parsons and Methodist ministers.
Shadow Chancellor Sir Geoffrey Howe could hardly complain about men of the cloth receiving a little over the odds — especially when he had West Midlands hauliers up his sleeve.
Why were they discriminated against, he demanded. They were not, retorted Mr Healey „ . "We are seeking to persuade the contractors to renegotiate their agreement."
Sir Geoffrey had a different interpretation of the situation. It was a form of collective punishment in an area where it was believed on someone's say-so that an excessive pay agreement had been made.
One should not end without mentioning the advice from legally trained Sir Frederick Bennett.
To small firms scared of sanctions he proclaimed: "Do not be frightened to challenge the Government. The Government will never be able, legally, physically or otherwise, to carry out these threats over a period of years.
"For one thing they will not even be in office,