Political Contmentar■
Page 55
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By JANUS
Thiis Far And No Farther
WORDS from a politician do not often reveal what he is really thinking. They may cause a commotion on the surface, or even a tumult in parliament, but their meaning is hidden, and in cold print they seem, to have little importance. The Minister of Transport caused something of a sensation when, at theend of a recent debate, he expressed the belief that "a large body of opinion would think it a pity" if the main trunk services of British Road Services were broken up into small units. There seems nothing here for surprise. The body of opinion to which Mr. BoydCarpenter pays heed has existed for a long time, and has frequently expressed itself -with few inhibitions.
The demand for putting an end to disposal is no stronger now than when List S.4 was published early in March, and the indifferent results of that list mean that the situation has scarcely changed subsequently, except that a few hundred more vehicles have been sold in small. lots. One must assume, therefore, that it is the failure with List S.4, rather than any change in the climate of opinion, that prompted the Minister to tell parliament that "the Government are now considering the position, particularly of vehicles operating trunk services." Had most of the units in List S.4 been sold, there would scarcely have been any problem to consider, for practically nothing would have been left to offer, or re-offer, except the parcels company, for which
arrangements are already in hand, .
The cause of the present breakdown is not altogether that nobody wishes to buy any more. Although only 544 vehicles were sold out of 6,115 in List S.4, there were bids for 2,585 of the remainder. An offer for the unit of 498 vehicles from the Commission's " chartered " meat fleet was at least high enough to be the subject of a dispute that the Commission and the Disposal Board have found necessary to refer to the Minister. The shares of the parcels company will not be put on sale until October, and until the attempt has been made it cannot be said with any certainty that nobody will buy.
Not High Enough
The main reason for the failure of List S.4 was that the bids were not high enough. The approach of the General Election may have had something to do with this, and neither the Minister in parliament nor the Disposal Board in their report have given any clue as to the prices at which they were willing to sell. The problem of the reluctant bidder has been faced before, and overcome. Only 20 per cent, of the vehicles were sold in the first two lists at the beginning of 1954. The Board persevered, with the result that the proportion sold has steadily increased from list to list, and nearly 17,000 vehicles have now been sold out of 24,000 offered.
The trouble with' the early lists was cured 'largely through experience. There was a more Skilful assembling of units as time went on, and the tendency was to reduce the number of vehicles per unit, until with List 11 the average was little more than 1+. -Somewhat similar steps Were taken with the medium and large units in Scotland. Out of 1,264 vehicles. only 246 were sold at first. Some of the smaller units were broken up
even further, and the vehicles re-offered without premises. Some other units were divided or re-shaped to suit known requirements. At present, only 461 vehicles remain unsold from the special Scottish list.
Perseverance might bring its reward with the special list of medium and large units in England and Wales. The cure would be harder. Only 9 per cent of vehicles were sold from List S.4, as against 19 per cent. from List Sc.l. There were no bids for nearly half the units in List S.4, and the suspicion is that some of them nobody in his senses would wish to biiy. Each unit consisted of an agglomeration of vehicles round one depot, and there was more hope than genuine conviction that the result would be commercially viable.
Build from Scratch
Depots were offered in some towns where B.R.S. were retaining one or more depots of their own, and had naturally chosen the best, with the addresses and telephone numbers to which traffic inquiries were normally directed. The purchaser, of a unit where competition was already strongly established could not hope to make his new business pay for some time to come. unless he had exceptionally good connections of his own. He would have to build practically from scratch, and there is no wonder that he hesitated to buy in vie/ of the high price required.
There must be substantial doubts as ,to whether the unsold units in List S.4 would find purchasersif they were offered again in much the same, form as before. A few of them might be broken up and sold in. small lots but the public opinion that the Minister has recently invoked would be opposed to the treating of the whole list in this fashion. .
No satisfactory alternative -method of presentation has yet been suggested. For a long time the Road Haulage Association pressed upon the Disposal Board the advantages of the company method, but the Association seem to have wearied of the idea, and the . Board have explained at some length in their Weit report why they do not propose to Use the company procedure to any great extent.
The Minister does not say whether he thinks there would be little demand for the units in List S.4 if they Were offered again', but this is perhaps his central fear. His political sense tells him that from now on public opinion will grow more incensed with each stfccessive failure to clinch denationalization. He cannot afford many more failure,s, perhaps not even one more..
Something approaching a crisis has 'been, reached. The Minister still has a chance to reverse his policy without making himself too-Much an-object of ridicule. There is no longer. One imagines (perhaps there never :was), any chance of getting the Socialists to agree to a kind of truce on .the 38th parallel. 'There is a reasonable expectation that, in. order to fix the position as it stands at present, they would not make too much fuss about contesting the passage of an amending Bill.
If he decides ultimately to push disposal farther, the Minister must take a risk, and no doubt at the moment he is fervently calculating the consequences.