On losing friends and Influencing people
Page 15
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Nationalization of road haulage is being revived as a political issue. The Labour Party's recent policy document made much of a commitment to get more freight on to the Stateowned railways and of its intention to expand national ownership in the road haulage, freight handling and container terminal fields. Last week's Transport and General Workers' Union conference gave overwhelming support to a much more specific call for haulage renationalization, This week State-owned road transport got a boost from an
unexpected quarter Granada Television, whose World in Action programme set out to investigate the thesis that British Road Services faces unfair competition. It did this by tailing lorries owned by three private-enterprise hauliers and convincing viewers that some drivers were working far beyond the legally permitted hours — in contrast to BRS policy and practice.
Can we now expect to see some sections of the environmental lobby suggesting that the heavy lorry is objectionable unless it happens to be state-owned?
The Road Haulage Association has complained to Granada TV that the programme was one-sided and stated that the Association has always urged compliance with the law among its members. This is true, but it neatly sidesteps the issue (dear to the heart of some senior members) of whether the Association should lay down standards and expel those who fail to keep them. Whether or not the televised hauliers and drivers in fact broke the law, and whether or not the TV programme was one-sided, members should ponder the fact that the massive exposure of which the media are now capable can sway a large part of public opinion out of all proportion to the content of the program me. It would, for instance, be instructive to discover whether World in Action's half-hour wiped out, however irrationally, the effects of last week's Living with the Lorry coverage.