The Red Herring Diet
Page 2
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SPEAKING to a presumably attentive and respectful audience at the Scottish Co-operative Transport Association's annual meeting at Glasgow last week, •Mr. Alfred Barnes, Minister of Transport, explained The Government's purpose in nationalizing Britain's internal-transport system.
From the report of his address, which appears elsewhere in this issue, it will be apparent that Mr. Barnes was intent on justifying this move— although why this should be necessary to a gathering of his Party's staunchest supporters we simply cannot imagine. Could it be that the Minister's advisers have discovered a little opposition to the transport issue among the rank and file? Are the good people of Scotland in any way doubtful about the success of a -nationalized public transport system that may soon be thrust upon them? Or is it that the man-in-the-street, now that the tide of nationalized transport is lapping at his door, has suddenly awakened to the fact that State ownership can affect him, personally, as much as it can the "bloated capitalist "?
Whichever it was, Mr. Barnes left little doubt that a co-ordinated scheme for Scotland (despite his recent assurance in the Commons that so far he had not given the British Transport Commission any directions in such matters!) was something for which the people of that country were in need of a little " softening-up."
He said: "The Government had to shape and 'develop a policy that would enable them to consult and take into consideration local opinion and allow the people in the different localities to shape their own transport requirements." After what has happened in the north-east, this sounds just about as convincing as Dr. Suntmerskill's likening of margarine to butter—in both cases, the " blindfold " element plays an important part.
Were the "local people "—the men-in-the-street —consulted in the north-east? Were they asked whether they were satisfied with the transport services and fares charged by the undertakings and operators at present providing them?
No, Mr. Barnes, they were not—and they are not likely to be, either. So let US have less of this tub-thumping talk about the "people shaping their own transport requirements." They do licit, Sir, and you know it. So stop trying to fool them.