BIRD'S EYE VIEW
Page 72
Page 73
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
By The Hawk
Mr. Marples, now shadow Minister of Teehndogy.
What Marples Thinks En all the welter of comment about the Geddes report I have not seen one word ascribed to the originator of the exercise, Mr. Ernest Marples. So this week I asked him wheffier he would have implemented the recommendations if he were Minister now. He thinks he probably would have done "... though I would have talked to everyone first. I. would have got them all—Lord Geddes, everyone—perhaps at lunch or dinner, and talked it all over, to judge the spirit of the thing. I tried to run the Ministry like a business concern. It is not being run that way now."
Of Mr. Fraser's criticism that the terms of reference were too narrow, Mr. Marples said he thought they went quite wide enough and -that what the present Minister really meant was that the results did not fit preconceived
Socialist ideas about transport. I didn't ask them to look into chipping and other transport because what we wanted was some clear idea of the best way to deal with road transport. It is an expanding industry and wanted to know whether the licensing system was the best method: did we want more control or less?"
Now, he said we had this unbiased report from a committee which included an economist and a prominent TUC man, but the Socialists had made up their minds on an integrated system. He pointed out that it had taken the Geddes Committee 18 months of careful investigation to report on road haulage licensing alone—how much longer would it have taken to examine a wider field of transport?
No Action They don't know what they
mean by integrated '—at least they have never .been able to tell me what they meant continued Mr. Marples. "They are trying to get vertical integration, but the days of vertical trusts in industry are gone. .The whole thing is naive. The • logical equivalent.. in industry would beto tpll -vehicle manufacturers that they must make their own tyres and sparking plugs and batteries and not sub-contract them I He felt that all Lord Hintdn was really doing was to see how road expenditure and vehicle duties lined up " and the only result of that is probably higher taxes ".
" Action has gone—it is ' I am considering . . ' these days, not decisions. Goethe said: ' Thought is easy, action is difficult.' It is government by pending tray. Things which came up for decision just before I left the Ministry— Dick Beeching's proposals for main lines, for example— are still not decided upon. I think its heartbreaking."
1 asked him about Mr. Fraser's use of 'a written question as a means of commenting on Geddes without debate. Mr. Marples replied: "I had some unpleasant or unpopular things to tell the House in my time, but I never funked it."
In Praise of Eddie Doubtless there are quite a
number of " characters " connected with the EDDY contests. But one of the most endearing, I feel sure, is genial Eddie Barber, who has been secretary of the Southend competition since 1957. Eddie, a director and general manan.er of Essex Carriers Ltd., really does give " personIR ality " to this round, working unstintingly throughout the day and always ready to liven things up with one of his own inimitable witticisms. He doesn't limit his Eactivities to the Southend Tound either—as regular visitors to the London competition will let you know. There, too, he's always very much in evidence, giving his all in his usual fashion—on a loud hailer.
I -asked him this week how long he thinks he might continue with these arduous duties. "If my, health stands up to. this sort of thing I expect to be there for quite some time ", he said. That's Eddie.
Those Old Copies One of our readers has written asking us to let it he known that he has " all special issues of The Commercial Motor from 1952 to date ". Anyone willing to collect them is invited to.rnake an offer to Mr. E. Grimoldby, at 297 Darwen Road, Bromley Cross, Bolton. If the pile Of 'CMs that I have seen in some of our readers' garages are anything to go by (well, where else, will the missus let you keep them?). whoever takes up the offer will need a goods vehicle licence to undertake the collection, Of course, we do publish, twice yearly, indexes of past issues which, for the cost of a few coppers to cover postage, can be obtained from our sales deparffitent. 'Anyone ' wanting their past copies bound in a volume can have this done, also by .arrangement with the sales department. A. bound volume of CM, kept on the bedside table is always a handy thing to Pick up if you suffer from insomnia!
Tate and Lyle Final In Sunday's Tate and Lyle
inter-depot safe driving tinals—which were held on the spacious car park at Wimbledon Stadium—the chairman's award of merit went to George Haynes, Bristol branch manager, not to one of the company's drivers. This was given to George, I gather, because of the sterling work he. has put into the organization of the event.
In brilliant sunshine 51 vehicles from all over the country . completed the familiar "Lorry Driver" manceuvrability tests. D. Taylor, of Daventry 'depot, won the Director's Trophy (for four-wheelers); W. King, of Wandsworth, carried off the Managers' Trophy-(for artics); while J. Kelly (not from the Isle of Man but from nearby Liverpool) was awarded the C. B. Rowan Trophy for sixand eight-wheelers.
Driving a heavy lorry these days (says Myrtle's boy friend) is just like that man on telly doing the dancing lark. You know; slow, slow, quick, quick, slow. Ile says you're just getting up speed when some idiot cuts in on you and you've got to stop a hit rapid. And smoothly too, otherwise the whole load almost comes at you through the back of the cab. Then' what about crawling in dense traffic? he asks. Quick as a flash I say what about it, then? And he tells me. Brake, ;tart, brake, start, brake„start, he says. For hours. Thank goodness I've got Clayton Dewandre power brakes, he adds. Then he goes on so long about Clayton Dewandre power brakes I wish he'd come to a. halt himself. And rapid, too . . .
Airpak combined air hydraulic servos are used for diesel-engined vehicles and Hydrovac vacuum-hydraulic servos are used with petrol-engined vehicles 6r with a CD rotary exhauster in diesel engined applications (no other equipment is required). Write for details.