"Operation Traffic Jam"
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VFN if the present Government 1-4 carried through its plans for the nationalization of the road transport industry, that "should not be the end," declared Mr. Geoffrey Lloyd, former Minister of Information, when he spoke at the annual dinner of the Road Haulage Association (Glasgow and West of Scotland sub-area), in Glasgow, on November 19. If nationalization were a failure, it would have to be undone by a subsequent Government.
Mr. Lloyd said that the Government's "Operation Traffic Jam" for nationalization should, like Hitler's invasion, be delayed four times and then abandoned. Road hauliers were yeomen of industry, who had built up their small businesses by giving service to customers. They were constitutional rebels against the Government's home policy, and they were not going to back down at the last moment. They were in the front line, fighting the battle of freedom and efficiency for every industry that was threatened.
If the Government carried out the amount of nationalization on which it was at present engaged, it would place in its own hands a personal patronage much larger than that possessed by any British Government since the 18th century. The Government was already beginning to appoint ministerial failures to public boards. Mr. Isaac Barrie, who presided, said that there was a time when transport was taken for granted. The war showed that everyone depended on transport for his daily bread and other necessities. Now transport was receiving too much attention.