Political Commentary
Page 43
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Trailing his Coat
By JANUS
NOT much was new in the recent account of British Road Services given by Lord Hurcomb. He was able to summarize progress that had been made in a number of directions. The nationalized fleet has been grouped into new units; the monthly tonnage carried increased slightly during 1950; agreements have been reached on wages and conditions; a staff college is opening this year; and so on.
If these achievements demand praise, they have already had it. The one item that might have been regarded as news was withheld. Although Lord Hurcomb must have known at the time of his statement that the Road Haulage Executive was shortly increasing rates by 10 per cent., he chose not to release the announcement until a few days later.
It is difficult not to feel that Lord Hurcomb was deliberately trailing his coat. One-third of the statement consisted of a disquisition on permits and a defence of the course adopted by the R.H.E. during the past few months. Even Lord Hurcomb's remarks on this subject were not entirely new. Most of them were lifted, almost unchanged from an address given a week earlier by Mr. G. W. Quick Smith, the Executive's secretary and legal adviser. By making them serve, however, as meat between two layers of unexceptionable but not very inspiring or novel facts, Lord Hurcomb certainly gave the impression that the main purpose of his, statement was to put forward his views on permits and to correct what he regards asmfalse impressions.
As might have been expected, the Ivory Tower claims divine revelation. All interpretations of the Transport Act that differ from Lord Hurcomb's arc heresy. His statement is sprinkled with such phrases as "the intention of the Act is perfectly clear S'
Deliberate Vagueness
Unfortunately, other people find it as easy as he does to read all sorts of things into the Act. Legislators are chary of setting out their aims too precisely. "To provide for the establishment of a British Transport Commission " is the avowed purpose of the Act, which proceeds to give the Commission various duties and powers without always saying precisely how they are to be performed and used. There is no way of telling without a shadow of doubt whether or not Parliament intended the system of original permits to be a permanent feature of the country's tfansport.
The Ivory Tower, however, is in no doubt at all. "Of course," says Lord Hurcornb, "revocation is part of the process of ' deferred acquisition' of long-distance haulage laid down by the Act, by means of which all long-distance traffic, with a few specified exceptions, is brought under the control of the Commission." It should be noted how, by isolating "deferred acquisition," in inverted commas, Lord Hurcomb gives the mistaken impression that the phrase may actually be found in the Act. Having launched this attack on the heretics, Lord Hurcomb sends in the second wave. "The truth is," he says, "that the original-permit system was designed to space out acquisitions and to allow the holders to continue to operate until the Executive is ready to take them over."
Now, if Lord Hurcomb had merely said that this was how he proposed to operate the permit system, he might have been execrated, but could not have been con tradicted. It is going a little far to make Parliament the scapegoat for the inhumanity of the procedure.
In the Ivory Tower, Utopia is already established, and the only facts are those that you want to believe. The outside world does not always realize that when Lord Hurcomb says "of course" or "the truth is," he means "I think "; or that when Mr. Quick Smith grandiloquently lays the blame for the hauliers' plight on "fate," it is merely reluctance on his own part to accept the role of man of destiny.
Any congratulations the Ivory Tower may have received for setting np a Historical Relics Section should not encourage it to think it will be equally praised for forming a corps of astrologers. The haulier justifiably feels no more willing to accept extinction at the hands of fate than at the hands of Mr. Quick Smith. He may question whether Lord Hurcomb has interpreted the intentions of Parliament correctly. -.After, ail, the clauses in the Act dealing with -original .pefrnits are headed " Protection for certain existing undertakings with A or B licences," from which it might be inferred that
Parliament intended to protect the haulier. •
Spiders. on the Ice
According to Lord Hurcomb, the clauses were drafted merely to help him imitate the action of the spider who paralyses his hapless victim to. keep it fresh against the time when he is ready to devour it. . Is this really-what Parliament meant? One May say with equal or even more probability that the permit system was devised to allow the primarily short-distance haulier to carry on his long-distance activities, but not to extend them or to encroach on the Commission's preserves He wa5, not to be subject to compulsory acquisition, and his original permit, after a 12-month probationary period, would come up for review only once every three years. The triennium has no point if the permit is meant to be merely a breathing space for the Commission. It Lord Hurcomb be right, the Commission should have been given power to revoke an original permit—as it can an ordinary permit—as soon as it decides it can handle the traffic.
Having convinced himself of his metempsychosis into a spider, Lord Hurcomb can sit at the centre of his web and complain that his spiderly equipment is inadequate. His sting is not sufficiently paralysing, and the peevish flies refuse to give themselves up when "he is ready to take them over." The web is not strong enough, and most of the traffic that should be safely snared falls right through. On the other hand, its newly woven, glistening strands are cluttered up with miscellaneous junk that the Commission would not have acquired if it had not been compelled to foreclose on original permits.
To crown everything, says Lord Hurcomb, he has even had second thoughts in some cases. He has restored permits to some agricultural carriers and furniture removers, and is "prepared to look sympathetically" at marginal cases This must be a grievous handicap. What self-respecting arachnid would be even " prepared " to look sympathetically? Who ever heard, outside Walt Disney, of a spider with a heart? It is high time for Parliament to have another look at the problem, and, if it considers it necessary to turn Lord Hurcomb back into his former .kindly self. •