Persuading the Socialists
Page 63
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IN making their plans for publicity, which presumably will take effect some time this year, hauliers are justified in hesitating_ There is no exact precedent to guide them, and past experience is not encouraging., The nearest comparable situation was that confronting several industries (including road haulage) in 1945, and a further selection of industries a few years later.
The vigorous anti-nationalization campaigns immediately after the war achieved nothing although there may have been some long-term effects difficult to trace back to their source. Most memorable in the second series of campaigns was the effort of the sugar industry, but it would be hard to say whether the temporary abandonment by the Socialists of further experiments in State ownership Was due to Mr. Cube or to their own disillusionment.
If the hauliers are wise, they must have begun by asking what they wanted to achieve, and the extent to which they could hope to succeed by the use of the various techniques of publicity and public relations. It seems TO be generally agreed among them that the limit of their expectations is fixed by the present state of affairs. In theory, hauliers could press for the ultimate sale of the parcels company and the meat ,company now under the guardianship of British Road Services. In practice, apart from the probable lack of buyers, the demand would re-open old sores, and lead to another political battle from which the hauliers might emerge worse off than before.
Political Compromise The likelihood, therefore, is that the hauliers' theme will be the advantages of the existing situation, itself the residt of a political compromise. Under the goad of competition from independent operators, they will maintain, B.R.S. and British Railways are thernselves-becoming efficient, and they provide a useful stabilizing influence over the rest of the industry. The strength of this assessment of the position is increased by the support of practically the whole of trade and industry, and, as far as one can judge, of the British Transport Commission.
Unfortunately, the final sanction does not lie in the hands of these sections of the community, but rests with the House of Commons. There is a political as well as a commercial side to the hauliers' campaign. To succeed, it must ensure that a renationalization measure is not introduced into Parliament. While a Conservative government remains in power, all is well, and many hauliers find it congenial to demand that their major effort should be directed towards keeping out the Labour Party at the next election.
This policy abounds in pitfalls. It so happens that the not inconsiderable resources of the Conservative Party are almost exclusively devoted to the same end, but there is no certainty that they will win. The issues on which the next election will mainly be fought are still obscure, but it is doubtful whether nationalization will be prominent among them.
A more important objection is that, if the Conservatives lose, they live to fight again, whereas a road haulage industry that had allied itself too openly with the Conservatives could have little hope of survival in its present form under a Socialist government. Those hauliers who are Conservatives will naturally support their own party when the time comes. In the interim, they will try every feasible method to persuade the Labour Party to modify their by no means fixed ideas about State ownershin
This is where the hauliers' campaign should be of greatest interest. We must assume that, at the moment, every Labour M.P. would be prepared to vote for renationalization, although one or two recent statements cast some doubts even on this assumption. If, in due course, when there is another Labour government enough of them feel sufficiently strongly on the matter to vote against renationalization, or even to abstain, it is probable that the legislation would not even be introduced.
The problem does not merely involve taking a number of Labour M.P.s on one side and lecturing them. They are not open to conviction by this means, at least on a subject so saturated with polities. The main approach must be more indirect.
Void of Meaning Many influences go to make up the expressed opinion of a Labour M.P. on such a matter as the renationalization of long-distance road haulage. He has, like most of us, an innate feeling of loyalty to the group, or sect, or association, or party, of which he is a member. He begins with a bias in favour of party policy, and he finds it easier to remember and accept the facts that support it. As a politician, he can hardly hope to be entirely free from the vice of the catchphrase thaf, although almost devoid of meaning, has become an article of faith.
He may no longer think of nationalization as a cure for all economic ills, but he dislikes capitalism, believing that it encourages greed and selfishness, prevents equality of opportunity, and blunts the social conscience. His opinion is a Mixture of reason, instinct and morality, but it rests also upon the supporting opinions of a number of groups, including the party, his supporters in his constituency, and the trade unions. If all these groups were to alter their views, then he would swiftly follow suit, and would soon find plenty of good reasons for doing so..
A more likely process would be a slow change of mind, shared by the MT. and the groups that influence him— and that he influences in his turn. This is the process that hauliers must seek to promote. If, in so doing, they find some corresponding changes taking place in themselves, it may be all to the good.
Worked to Death For example, they have for too long allowed people who do not particularly like them to build up a picture of a road haulage industry in which drivers and vehicles are worked to death, and the law is merely something that must be circumvented. A few operators—some without benefit of A licence, and not therefore genuine hauliers— have deserved the accusation. The industry as a whole has been remiss in not taking an active part in forcing out th: bad operator.
Hauliers might do worse than consider whether, in conjunction with their coming campaign, they should not offer their co-operation with the Ministry of Transport and even with the unions, in an effort to cut down infringements of the law, particularly those that militate against the maintenance of road safety.
In doing so, some hauliers might have to give some thought to their own standards of conduct. This is no reflection on them, for, what with the complications of road transport law, the best of operators have been known to make mistakeq