1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156 
Transport Ministry takes on 'Cinderella
Page 5
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
look' from our political correspondent TRANSPORT looked like becoming the Cinderella of Government policy as Mr Wilson had to shop around for a successor as Transport Minister to Mr Fred Mulley, promoted to a Cabinet job as Secretary for Education.
The new Minister is Dr John Gilbert, MP for Dudley East, and hitherto a junior Minister at the Treasury.
But before his appointment was announced the post had been first offered to Mr Bob Mellish, Government Chief Whip, and then to Mrs Judith Hart, ousted from her post as Minister for Overseas Development in the Government reshuffle.
Both refused to take it.
Mr Gilbert is no doubt pleased to have been promoted to administer an area of policy of his own, but the selection of such a junior member of the Government is being taken as an indication that transport development has been relegated from the position of high priority it enjoyed at the beginning of 1974. His salary remains £12,500.
Economic stringency has undoubtedly affected the ability of the Government to allocate funds for the road programme and the implementation of a comprehensive transport system would clearly be a costly operation.
It also seems likely that in the present economic climate finance for the take-over of further large sections of road haulage would not be forthcoming and that the industry may have gained yet another reprieve.
Dr Gilbert, 47, who has been a member of the Labour Party since he was 18, was appointed Labour's front bench spokesman on Treasury affairs in 1972 after only two years as an MP, His special interests as a backbencher—taxation and economic affairs—stemmed from his earlier career as a chartered accountant. He went on to enter international banking in New York where he took his PhD in international economics at the Graduate School of Business Administration.
Educated at Merchant Taylors and St John's Oxford, he later became an economist consultant and university lecturer.
Although by no means a Left-winger, he was an enthusiastic anti-Marketeer before the Referendum result was announced. This was in contrast to his predecessor, Mr Mulley, a consistent proMarket man, whose new job, incidentally, gives him a seat in the Cabinet.
The road haulage industry will certainly find Gilbert, whose appearance has been described as "handsome, cleancut, sunny smile," as a much more outgoing personality than the able but owlish Mr Mulley.
Gilbert's choice of personal transport at Westminster in his backbench days before he rated a Ministerial car was indicative of his life-style and North American experience : a Mustang convertible which he enjoyed driving with the hood down.