Long-distance restrictions may never come
Page 26
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• One prominent Labour Member of Parliament who does not favour licensing restrictions is Privy Councillor Douglas Jay. He told the Transport Managers' Club in London last week that he did not support the principle of special authorizations (quantity licensing). He also stated that he had never favoured the restrictions imposed on C-licences and expressed the opinion that the Government should legislate on safety, taxes and wages, but that the movement of goods should be left to open competition irrespective of mileage. "I expect this will be the ultimate solution", he said.
Mr. Jay, who was President of the Board of Trade from 1964-67 and is an economic consultant to Shipping and Industrial Holdings, which embraces Alltransport and Cyprien Fox, had earlier looked at Britain's future in Europe. "International trade and transport are closely linked", he said. He added that he was not enamoured of the prospect of our joining EEC but discussed the advantages of forming a new "club", composed of various blocks in the free world—on the lines of and including EFTA and EEC—each as a separate economic unit.
This way, he suggested. Britain would enjoy the benefits of an expanding market without bearing the rising costs of EEC. The effect on transport would be to increase demand for international vehicles without ever-spiralling costs.
According to Mr. Jay, if the trend of the last quarter of a century continues there is a bright future for the international operator. Whereas from 1900 until the end of the war the export index figures had remained constant. in the last 25 years they had shown an increase of 170 per cent.