Playing at Politics
Page 28
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
EVENTS connected with last week's opening of the flyover on the Great West Road in West London were both unfortunate and undignified. It is difficult to follow the reasoning thal prompted the choice of a film star noted for her curves for the opening of a major project designed to straighten out the tortuous western exit from London.
The statement attacking the Ministry of Transport issued by Mr. J. E. Dayton, joint managing director of the company responsible for the main constructional work, was even more lacking in good taste. Even if it were factually accurate in all respects, which the Ministry promptly denied, its timing could not fail to have political repercussions at a time when the General Election campaign was strongly under way.
If the accusations of obstruction, delay and waste made by Mr. Dayton are true, they will cause grave disquiet in the country. Fault is to be found not so much with the charges laid as with their timing. Whilst the form of construction used may not have been the most modern, it may have been dictated by reasons other than the commercial.
It is to be hoped that the Ministry of Transport will set the public mind at rest bytaking Mr. Dayton's allegations seriously and replying to them point by point. The catastrophe of Preston by-pass is too recent to allow complacency in the matter of expensive road projects. The public must be protected against waste, but it also expects the normal canons of good taste to be observed.