BIRD'S EYE
Page 49
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By The Hawk VIEW Angel of Mercy Motoring up the MI recently,
our features editor had a major breakdown. He left his car at the Daventry service station and made a telephone call. Half an hour later he was picked up. Later he was returned to London by air, using Elstree airport. His angel of mercy was Alistair Carter, managing director of Carter Engineering Co. (Tamworth) Ltd.—of car transporter fame.
1 have mentioned before on this page that Mr. Carter does a bit of flying. Now he has his own 'plane—a 4-seater French Morane Saulnier Super Rallye and uses it to collect potential customers to bring them to his factory. He has • also made some emergency deliveries of spares.
Mr. Carter flies off to the United States soon (in a jet) and you can expect to hear some startling news about future projects when he gets back: Incidentally, he tells me that it's cheaper to park an aircraft, under cover, at Manchester Airport than it is to park a car in the open there!
The liner train stalemate is no longer news. Dr. Beeching—now on his last two months with BR—and the unions appear to have got nowhere at all.
But the unions' latest objection was a classic. The Doctor insists on no brake vans. The unions have now responded by claiming that if the guard then travels in the second cabin of the locomotive, he could inadvertently be a danger to the train's safety.
If so, I am throwing my dictionary away. It defines "to guard" as "to keep safe ".
Guard a Danger
Retread Prejudice? Do you use retreads? If not,
why not? I should really like to know. This practice undoubtedly is becoming very popular (value of the retread market last year was £13m.. as against £113rn. in 1958), but I'm sure that in some places prejudice exists against the use of remoulds.
According to a Dunlop spokesman, answering questions when the Press visited the company's giant remould factory at Speke. Liverpool, a retread should have a life of more than 90 per cent of that of a new tyre—when sensibly used. And, of course, it costs only about half the price.
The MoT, I understand. has stated that it approves the use of remoulds on rear axles of goods vehicles. But apparently no mention was made about their use on front axles—an unhappy implication. And when blow-outs on motorways are publicized I suspect that many people register a mental black mark against retreads—surely a matter of prejudice. What do you think?
Planning Named •The many friends of Mr.
G. B. (George) Walden, Northampton district organizer of the TGWU, will be pleased to learn of his appointment to the East Midlands' Economic Planning Council. George, a former United Counties' bus driver, has acquired great experience of industrial relations matters in transport and other industries during his long service as a union official. As a water polo practitioner, George will be quite capable of swimming in George Brown's planning waters.
Leaving No. 10? The latest South Eastern Applications and Decisions has an intriguing entry under A-licence variation applications: " Add IV nie 21T (pantechnicon) to be acquired. Mainly goods for Harold Wilson, any distance . . ." Sir Alec, please note.
On the Carpet
Heard recently in Traffic Court.
Solicitor (well known): Where is Axminster?
Applicant: In Devon.
Solicitor: It isn't, you know.
Those Lunches Are you. worried about those
business luncheons that you won't be able to claim expenses for now, as a result of Mr. Callaghan's budget? One reader—who will remain nameless—told me over the 'phone that he has solved this problem. "Every employer faced with this problem of entertaining must ascertain how much he spends on this item during a year—say. £200. He then immediately bumps ,up his salary by that amount ", my informer told me.
But what about the income tax, that will go up with the additional salary?" I asked. "Oh, that's easy ", he replied. "You work out what the tax on the additional f200 will be, and you put your salary up by that amount as weir One snag about this is that you must have enough money in the kitty to pay yourself the rise.