BUGGING THE LORRIES
Page 62
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" NTUITION is something we should not ignore," said Maggie's brother Cromwell. "My corn has been playing me up ever since I read the recent news about the Transport Holding Company. I am convinced there is more to it than appears on the surface."
"If you are thinking about the number of firms that have been taken over," I said, "there have already been some complaints from hauliers. You must admit that the circumstances are explained away satisfactorily hi the THC annual report."
"With this kind of insinuation I have no sympathy," said Cromwell. "Operators only grumble because their own requests to be taken over have been turned down. What I am more concerned about in the THC is the reshuffle at the top."
"It looks simple enough to me," I said. "The BRS Federation may ultimately disappear into the THC Freight Association, but the Federation has no operating function because some time ago the individual BRS companies were set up with a direct link to the THC and substantially their own authority. All that's happened is an acceptance of the Federation's changed role. There's no sinister Castle move there."
"That is not my main fear," said Cromwell. "You are right in supposing that the Minister comes into it. Have you not read about her activities lately?"
"Only that she has been doing a good deal of travelling," I said. "She is like a character in some old tale who has had a spell put on her by the wicked fairy which compels her to go up and down the country and the length and breadth of the world and to keep talking continuously."
"Perhaps the story should have a happy ending at least for her," said Cromwell. "The spell is broken when somebody at last makes the appropriate reply or gives her a suitable gift. I believe that this moment arrived the other day."
"Now at long last I am with you," I said. "It was only the other day that the West German Minister of Transport introduced Mrs. Castle to the black box. No doubt if it had been really a fairy tale he would have said something like: 'Keep this box carefully. With it you will be able to hear and understand the language of all the birds and bees and all the animals, including the articulated trunker and the rigid multiwheeler."
"It might sometimes be better not to hear that sort of language," said Maggie, "although there is usually no trouble about understanding it. Perhaps Mrs. Castle will come to wish she had not received a present after all." "There is more than a hint of this in the comments from one or two of the trade union representatives," I said. "They have expressed alarm. I still cannot see why we should be expected to share it."
"The little black box is only the beginning," said Cromwell. "To me it is like George Orwell's 1984 come to life. There are other sinister happenings taking shape all around us. Sooner than we expect another black box may be fitted to every vehicle, including private cars. The excuse will be some harebrained story about road pricing. It is time we woke up and stopped deceiving ourselves."
"Road pricing if it ever comes about will be something more than a legend," I said. "It will cost the motorist and other people a good deal. As for the black box in lorries, this is no more than a variation on the timeand-distance recorders which many operators have been happily fitting on their vehicles for years past."
"The operator might say that he is entitled to put what devices he likes on his own vehicles," said Cromwell. "The trade unions would just as cheerfully ignore this argument. What is different about the present proposal is that the black box will be compulsory. The government may protest that the system will be used only for certain limited purposes but once it is installed can you trust any government not to take full advantage of it?"
"Now you are beginning to get political," said Maggie.
"Just a general statement," said Cromwell. "The black box is ideal as a means of getting to know what people are doing and of controlling their movements. Before we know where we are we shall all of us have to carry one around like the gas-mask during the war."
"It is a good thing the kids have gone to bed," said Maggie, "or they would be having nightmares."
"Where does the Transport Holding Company come into all this?" I asked.
"What set me on the track of the future in store for us," said Cromwell, "was the curious metamorphosis of Wilson."
"I told you that you would not be able to keep politics out of it," said Maggie.
"Not that Wilson," said Cromwell. "The other one—Reggie. According to the reports the changes at the top of the THC are in tended to take the pressure of work from some of the leading figures, including Sir Reginald, and to help him meet what are described as increasing responsibilities in other directions, `notably'—and I am quoting from COMMERCIAL Marca—in connection with Thos. Cook and Son Ltd., of which he became a director last Friday.' He may choose to call it 'redeployment' but what else is behind it?"
"What you are trying to convey," I said, "is that when the task of bugging the lorries is complete the black box can be applied to the travel trade."
"Nothing could be easier," said Cromwell. "People are used to being herded round the Continent in droves. They will accept the black box as just another insoluble mystery like the wine trade's Appalachian Controller."
"The black box would certainly be a useful way of monitoring how the holidaymaker spends his £50 travel allowance," I said.
"A suitable adjustment," said Cromwell, "would ensure that every time he is tempted to spend beyond his means he gets heartburn."
"You make this box sound as important as the one that the bishops are always being urged to open," said Maggie.
"It is just one indication of the danger," said Cromwell. "All this planning depends upon people doing as they are told. Take a look at the White Paper which Mrs. Castle published last summer. It is full of proposals to use for transport purposes, the planning councils and authorities that are already in being and to set up additional bodies where necessary. Only the other day an additional group was set to work on research into urban transport."
"It would not be difficult to show," I said, "that the whole population could be made to do just what the authorities wanted provided they had complete control over transport. If people could go only where they were told they would be no better off than prisoners."
"So you see how dangerous the little black box can be," said Cromwell. "There may well be even worse horrors in store. Now take what is happening with containers. .. ."