Minister behaving like Queen of Hearts says Mr.
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Walker
TF Transport Minister Mrs. Barbara -I-Castle is heard to roar "Off with his head" the next time she sees her Tory Shadow counterpart, Mr. I c ter Walker, it might be no more than he deserves. For, in a weekend speech, Mr. Walker said she was behaving like the Queen of Hearts.
"There is something sinister about the manner in which, month by month, the Minister is deliberately removing all of the independent voices that could criticize her policies," he said. He gave a party meeting in Worcester this timetable:— NOVEMBER 1966: The creation of road construction units removed the responsibility for building roads from the county surveyors, who had frequently been outspoken in their demands for more roads, more motorways. "No longer will their conferences urge major programmes on the Government. Those primarily concerned with road construction will now be on the direct payroll of the Minister herself."
DECEMBER: Sir Alex Samuels was removed from his position as road traffic adviser to the Minister. An independent and highly experienced expert in the transport field, he was "filtered away" to serve on the Covent Garden Market' Authority and the British Waterways Board.
FEBRUARY 1967: Sir Alfred Owen, independent chairman of the National Road Safety Advisory Council, was replaced by a Transport junior Minister, Mr. John Morris. Now the chairman of the Council will no longer criticize Government policy: the pronouncements will come from a member of the Government.
.APRIL: Lord Rochdale to be removed as chairman of the National Ports Council. He advocated a new dock at Portbury: his Council gave independent and objective advice on the development of the ports. The new chairman is to be the present chairman of the British Transport Docks Board--already a public servant heading a nationalized industry. Now The Ports Council will he helping the Government to work out detailed plans for port nationalization. "Is it possible that Lord Rochdale would have no part in this?"
Mr. Walker, a pungent critic of Mrs. Castle.
FOR THE RECORD
THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT said in the Commons that she is now considering, as part of her current review of the law governing drivers' hours, whether the requirements to keep records of hours of work should be extended to all goods vehicle drivers, including those driving under trade plates.
SAFER TYRES
MRS. CASTLE proposes to strengthen the Construction and Use Regulations to enforce greater safety requirements regarding tyres.— Commons answer. added that, had not Lord Beeching already been removed as railway chairman, she would have undoubtedly have decided that his head must roll.
"He would have had no part in taking away from the railways the Freightliner train and placing it with the new NFO, whose objective is to nationalize the road haulage industry by back-door methods."
So, Mr. Walker, summed up, in the entire field of transport Mrs. Castle's axe had fallen. She had removed those who would dare to speak.
"The Minister has acted like the Queen of Hearts. She has chopped off the heads of all du independent potential critics of her left-wing programmes, and replaced them by those who are much more likely to grin like the Cheshire Cat.
"The removal of these men may well make life easier for the Minister, but their removal will be disastrous for the development of the transport system of Great Britain."