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Me and my shadow
Page 30
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Forget the Gallup polls, forget the political predictions and listen here. There will be no election in the next 12 months. My authority for saying so is no less a person than Bill Rodgers, Minister for Transport. He told members of the Chartered Institute of Transport last week that he looked forward to next year when his colleague, Edmund Dell, Secretary of State for Trade and President of the Board of Trade, would be their principal guest and he would be along, sitting on the President's left hand. Did he mean as shadows of their former selves I wonder?
Bill Rodgers was talking to delegates at their annual luncheon and he made some merry quips like: -Tony Benn tries hard, but he hasn't got it right.(There was a power cut during lunch.) He referred to former incumbents in the post as -Barbara Marples and Ernest Castle." I wonder when these politicians will begin to understand that we are not a funny industry, nor are they addressing the Water Rats. Do they realise that transport contributes one-sixth of the gross national product and employs six per cent of the country's labour force?
What his audience wanted to hear was where their future lay, both in terms of domestic haulage rates and European legislation.
It may be too much to expect an in-depth transport statement from a man who has been 13 years in Parliament and involved in six different ministries. In fact, Bill Rodgers said he thought "his" White Paper gave continuity to road transport legislation, yet it promises a review every year and new legislation every three years.
What might have drawn applause from his audience, if he had stopped long enough to draw a breath, would have been his statement that transport solutions did not lie in the decree of MPs, but in the application of the common sense of those involved in the industry. Enough said.