We have waited too long
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MRS THATCHER is likely to make Cabinet changes in the final run-up to a 1983 General Election. We hope that she will not move David Howell out of transport, for if she does it is certain that the Armitage Report will once again be consigned to the bottom of the pending tray. When Norman Fowler was at Marsham Street he said that the report was a matter of urgency. The Conservative backbenchers screamed vociferously when the report was published and the urgency disappeared.
The present ministerial transport team is known to favour heavier vehicles. It appears to lack the courage to implement the recommendations of Armitage.
The matter need not be debated. It is simply a question of amending Construction and Use Regulations — no debate, no vote. The backbenchers and the Opposition have had their say. Now it is up to the Minister to take action.
If the Minister stalls until 1983, the Armitage Report will be shelved until after the General Election. Is this what is meant by urgency?
Mr Howell should act now — immediately after the recess. Perhaps he could carry the news from the Cabinet room to our Fleet Management Conference on October 14, when he will address the 450 delegates.