TORIES AND TRANSPORT
Page 34
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Thirty-Three resolutions headed by rejection of 'progressive nationalization'
from Our Political Correspondent
TRANSPORT ISSUES will hit the Tory Party's annual conference with a bang this year. Thirty-three resolutions have been submitted and it has been decided to open the proceedings—at Brighton on October 18—with a full-dress condemnation of Mrs. Castle's proposals.
The motion chosen for the debate to start off this centenary conference comes from the Maidstone division, and invites the party to reject totally the Labour Government's programme for "progressive nationalization ."
In place of Mrs. Castle's doctrines, the Conservatives will be asked to favour the encouragement, on a "fair and equitable basis," of competition between differing and alternative forms of transport, which will provide an efficient and economic service to the traveller and the consumer.
Not for a long time has such an avalanche of protest been piled up ready to burst on the transport issue at a Tory conference. Mr. Peter Walker will doubtless press home another of his attacks against Mrs. Castle, putting the weight of the party leadership solidly behind the motion.
The protests against the Minister's proposals for freight and passenger "integration", while thick on the ground, are contained almost exclusively in resolutions from the south-west, the Midlands and London.
But on behalf of the North, the York Conservative Association has sent in a motion deploring the plans to "strangle" free enterprise transport.
Ealing North Tories call on Tory MPs to support to the full the operators' fight against the PTA plan.
Worcester condemns the "threat to road haulage" contained in the NFO proposals, Hampstead Tories refer to Mrs. Castle's "secret plans" and Tavistock views with dismay the "declining confidence" of the transport industry caused by the Government's various threats.
Motion after motion goes on in the same way, with the Dartford Association putting in a plea to Labour to cease "regarding the industry as a political plaything".
Many of the other motions call for improvements in the road programme and all the signs are that there will be a real transport dust-up at Brighton this year, with the Conservatives giving notice that next session's Transport Bill is likely to be fought, tooth and nail, all the way.