Harold Watkinson Minister and Man

26th September 1958, Page 127

26th September 1958

Page 127

Page 127, 26th September 1958 — Harold Watkinson Minister and Man

Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

By Our Political Correspondent

MR. HAROLD WATIUNSON, the Minister of Transport, who is to open the Commercial Motor

• Show at Earls Conti today, is that rare bird in Whitehall—a practical, down-to-earth fellow who does not cling to a preconceived idea. That has been the foundation of his great success at the Ministry.

He had good training for the post—service as Parliamentary Private Secretary to a former Minister of Transport, then office as deputy Minister of Labour (where, in the middle of one of our many strikes he once delivered himself in the House of Commons of the rueful comment, " Before I was mug enough to do this job . .."). He had already shown great promise, and when he was made a full Minister (of Transport) in 1955, the bud began. to blossom and it came to full flower with his subsequent promotion to the Cabinet, where he brings to bear an immense fund of common sense.

One would, in fact, say that common sense was Mr. Watkinson's strongest point. It radiates from him, along with a powerful and impressive personality, all the stronger because of the essential quiet of the man. (For all that quietness, however, there is no mistaking the determination. In the London bus strike he took a tough line and would have resigned, it was said, if there had been any question of the Government weakening. No one who knows him has any doubt that, if the, threat was made, it would have been fulfilled.)

No Trees Spared

The trees never obscure the wood with Mr. Watkinson —he cuts a path through the wood. His meetings in the Ministry never last long. He will come up either with a solution of the current problem, or with a new approach that brings a solution. The new idea—that is one of his strongest points, and it stem's from his early training as an engineer. Let something arise on a Friday, and he will he back on Monday with notes of what he wants done.

But he is not impervious to argument. If somebody can show him that his idea will not work, he will listen to reason. But if he is sure of himself—as he was with parking meters, for instance--he will stick to his guns. And now it is said in official quarters that the meters are, beginning to work. He knows they will provide money for off-street car parks, and that is what he wants.

When Mr. Watkinson has tackled a problem in a meeting he does not forget all about it afterwards. His " followup " notes fly round the Ministry—progress reports . here . . . what has happened about such-and-such . . . what is the form on this or that . . . '2

He receives, for instance, a report every four weeks on the progress of the motorways. Those motorways, and the current road programme itself, are tributes to his tenacity. It is true that the basis of the road programme Was laid by Mr. John Boyd-Carpenter when he was the Minister of Transport. But Mr. Watkinson, inheriting it, insisted on concentrating efforts on specific roads and schemes. As a result, the Preston motorway will he opened in a month or so, and work on the London-Birmingham motorway will be complete in a year and a half.

It was Harold Watkinson, the practical engineer, who devised the operating plan, as far as the Ministry were concerned, for these great new roads. He took a big new step in road construction in Britain. For the 53 miles of the London-Birmingham motor road there arc only two contractors. Deliberately he gave out the contracts for these long stretches so that it was worth the contractors' while to bring their biggest, newest machinery to bear_ The Members -of Parliament who went during the summer to see the day-and-night work on the road were much impressed by this new conception of road building, with its helicopters, its incentive bonuses, its vehicles linked by radio-telephony.

But consider what had happened only a few months earlier—the sterling crisis, the Thorneycroft cuts in capital investment. In the pre-Watkinson era, roads were always the first items to bear the brunt of capital cuts. There was the Barnes motor-road plan, with a special Act of Parliament passed to facilitate it, great fanfares of publicity— then one of the recurrent financial crises, and not another word about motor roads until the present scheme came in.

Mr. Watkinson fought tooth and nail for his road programme last autumn—and won. He was in the Cabinet by then, and so his position was greatly–strengthened.

Before becoming a Minister, .Mr. Watkinson was a director of a machine-tool concern and was associated with a group of technical and engineering journals. His industrial experience includes the timber and woodworking industry, building, shipbuilding and general engineering.

Bold Approach

As Minister he has shown time and againthat he is not afraid to tackle a problem himself if it has proved insoluble to the experts. The 20 m.p.h. speed limit was a case in point. Employers and unions could not agree, so Mr. Watkinson set a time limit and then brought in the higher speed lima. And it all passed off peaceably, except for the Smithfield strike.

He has not neglected' his other fields of interest as Minister. He has been in the closest touch with civil aviation, and as for the railways, he has had more to do with Sir Brian Robertson, chairman of the British Transport Commission, than any other Minister of Transport.

Ile is, moreover, a man who likes to see for himself. Whenever he can manage it, he goes off to, say, Germany, or to the U.S.A. to keep in touch with the latest developments. He has developed quite an " explosive " habit of " opening " things. When he blew down a wall he positively showered everyone present with bits of debris. After that, they say, the Ministry concluded that the safest thing for him to use at an opening was—a "bunion!

The Commercial Motor Show organizers might take the hint! But even if they don't get an explosion, they are certain to get some good, -sound common sense.