QUEEN STORK
Page 73
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FROM what the majority of commentators have to say Mr. Tom Fraser's term of office as Minister of Transport will be reckoned in history as one of the years that the locusts have eaten. The complaints are that he did nothing of note, acquiesced tamely in the decision to put back part of the road programme for six months and in general showed most enthusiasm for the kind of legislation which stops people from doing what they like.
Whatever reproaches are levelled in the coming year against Mrs. Barbara Castle, she is hardly likely to be accused of inactivity. Her reputation is for getting things done, for tackling problems with a brisk and formidable intellect and for being no respecter of persons. As often happens she may reap where her predecessor has sown, but even in those circumstances she will put her individual stamp on the final product.
In the motoring world uneasiness has been aroused by the fact, much emphasized in the popular Press, that she does not hold a driving licence. There is no more significance in this than her presumed inability to drive a train or bring a ship into port. In general Ministers are not chosen for any special knowledge of the contents of their portfolio. The motorist's dismay tells us more about him than about Mrs. Castle. It is symptomatic of his fear that who is not for him must be against him.
MORE CAUSE TO BE APPREHENSIVE
Road transport operators have more cause to be apprehensive. They had come to feel reasonably secure under the mild dispensation of Mr. Fraser, whose only move in the direction of nationalization and integration had been to encourage the Transport Holding Company to buy any haulage businesses it thought desirable. Mrs. Castle finds the !eft wing of her party more congenial than did Mr. Fraser. She will not hesitate to introduce legislation more to her taste if she can be persuaded that it is sensible and will work. Operators may feel that they have exchanged King Log for Queen Stork.
So far road users have been content to allow Mrs. Castle to settle into office before criticizing her. The early threats have come from her own side. No doubt she is sensible enough to take them at their true value— which is not likely to be great if the advice from Mr. Francis Noel-Baker, MP, is a fair sample. A letter which he sent to her almost as soon as her appointment was announced was also released to the Press where it received far less ridicule than it surely deserved.
According to Mr. Noel-Baker the public are in a highly emotional state about transport. There is "strong criticism" of the efficiency of higher railway management. There is "violent opposition" to many recent closures. There is "scepticism" about the effect of the promised legislation to free railway workshops from the restrictions of the last Transport Act. There is "serious frustration" at the constant changes of policy and direction on the railways. There is "great impatience" for the Government to state its policy on the co-ordination of transport and a "widespread feeling" that it is time the Ministry of Transport made up its own mind without further outside advice.
The public in general ought to have been surprised at this analysis of their state of mind. No doubt many of them are indeed critical, sceptical, frustrated, impatient and even violent, but surely not about the subjects selected by Mr. Noel-Baker.
The ordinary person is inclined to agree with the outside advice on the co-ordination of transport and has no great longing to hear the opposite point of view propounded by the Government. He may agree that there is something wrong with the railways but he is far more concerned about such things as road congestion, restrictions on the use of his car in towns, shortcomings in public transport and the growing inadequacy of the road system both in towns and between them.
HEAVY BIAS
IN MOST APPROACHES •
Naturally enough. Mr. Noel-Baker may have taken his survey of public opinion from within his own constituency of Swindon, where a somewhat one-sided preoccupation with railway affairs is to be expected and is even commendable. Mrs. Castle will discover a heavy bias in most
of the approaches made to her, even, or perhaps especially, in those cases where the support of so-called public opinion is invoked.
Her term of office at the Ministry may turn out to be one of the most important in its history. By his comparative inactivity Mr. Fraser may only have brought forward the moment when inescapable decisions have to be made. Mrs. Castle may find herself following an almost uncharted course. The much-heralded National Plan will be of little use.
NATIONAL PLAN FOR TRANSPORT On the other hand, whatever the apostles of unrestricted free enterprise may say, sooner or later there must be formulated a national plan for transport. The growing number of restrictions shows already that the use of the manufacturing and operating resources available for transport cannot be left to an entirely free market in a country so densely populated as Great Britain. Nor is it possible for any government to ignore the economic benefits or nuisances— especially the latter—which arise from the provision of transport facilities and the use of vehicles.
The best plan for transport must have in mind the welfare of the general public and the needs of the national economy. For neither of these interests are there likely to be strong pressure groups seeking to influence the Minister. Instead of this Mrs. Castle will have to listen to sectional representations and make up her mind largely on information received from these sources. To keep a clear head in these circumstances will not be easy, especially when some of the most powerful and the most seductive voices come from within her own party.
The railway unions may feel that their views have been put forward satisfactorily at an early stage by Mr. Noel-Baker. The road transport unions may have other ideas and there will be further variations among the unions representing the makers of road vehicles. No decisions will be completely acceptable to the whole of this cross-section of the public; the best decisions in the national interest may offend almost everybody. Mrs. Castle has no easy task.