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• Lord Derwent

14th September 1962
Page 107
Page 107, 14th September 1962 — • Lord Derwent
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

BUT for the accident of . birth Lord Derwent, who . resigned .this .week. as chairman of the British Road Federation; on being appointed Minister of State,• Board of Trade, Would probably be described as a good Commons man. As it is, however, he is a good Lords man, one of the most •faithful and diligent of that august assembly. Certainly he does not in any degree share the view of those who -declare that the upper chamber is an :ffete encumbrance to legislation in this Age of the Common Man. If he has one criticism of its present composition it is that too many 'Life Peers. are getting on in years and have probably already given theirbest in the service of their country. He expresses his faith in the virtues of the hereditary principle—he is himself the 4th Baron Derwent —especially when it enables ,comparatively young men to assist vigorously in the country's affairs. This faith was recognized last week in his new Government appointment.

Do not picture him as an aloof aristocrat with little taste for the market place. When I met him at his London home I felt I was talking to an aCcoMplished man of business who, though his life is spent in high level negotiation, has by no means lost the common touch. He talks in a relaxed and friendly' manner and one feels that he would have excelled in the diplomatic service.

It was, however, the Army which beckoned to him. After Charterhouse and the Royal Military College he attained the rank of major. Later, commissioned in the King's Royal Rifle Corps. in 1921," he 'turned to the world of insurance—" one had to earn a living," he observed—and among other appointments, he has been a director of the Yorkshire Insurance Co., chairman of The Reinsurance Corporation, and a director of the National Safe Deposit and Trustee Corporation.

But it was as chairman of the British Road Federation that he is best known in the transport industry, an industry, he was quick to assure me, in .which he has no commercial interest whatsoever. "The Federation likes its chairman to be completely independent," he said. "When my predecessor retired from the chair he asked me to take over and I did so." That is why he, in turn, has resigned.

But the job, as he did it, is not simple. For one thing it absorbs a lot of—unpaid for—time. In the House of Lords, where he was Junior Opposition Whip in 1950-51, he was much occupied with drafting legislation, particularly that concerning road transport.

Mr. Austen Albu, M.P., said in the House of Commons on October 26, 1960: "The strongest lobby I have known during the 12 years that I have been in this House is the British Road Federation." There can be no doubt that Lord Derwenthas been a strong influence in that lobby. . "Of course, the delaying powers of the Lords have been drastically curtailed by recent legislation," he said. "Bills cannot be held up for very long. But there's still enough time to discuss behind the scene's, to argue, persuade, inform—add often finally to amend. The Federation is convinced that when dealing with government, Westminster or lacal, they must be backed by a full array of facts."

So the Federation is responsible for many surveys to aseertain fact. There was the matter of the Hammersmith flyover,' for instance," in which the B.R.F. produced a case so unanswerable that even the most stubborn of local people were in the end convinced. There was the Car Parking Survey, which has shown that very many urban authorities are not aware of the extent of the problems which face them Having established the existing facts about parking, the Federation will press for the development of a parking policy in all urban areas. Then there is the patient work towards the simplification Of the requirement to keep current drivers' records. Many traders operating C-licensed vehicles within a restricted radius find the keeping of the existing records irksome and expensive. These are but examples.

And as an example of how Lord Derwent comes into the picture one recalls how, when the Road Traffic Bill was surprisingly re-introduced into the House of Lords at the beginning of the 1961-62 session, he moved an amendment which would have had the effect of giving the• Minister powers to make regulations exempting certain drivers from the necessity of keeping daily records. The amendment was withdrawn on an undertaking being given by the Government that urgent discussions with all parties concerned would take place.

Despite the very busy life he leads in London, Lord Derwent remains a lover of Yorkshire. He is happy to leave his house in Belgravia for his home, Hackness Hall, near Scarborough, and he tries to spend at least six continuous months there every year. He is no believer in week-end journeys to the North. "By a little organization I manage to divide my time pretty equally, between London and Yorkshire," he told me. H.C.


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