Castles in the air
Page 21
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THE Minister of Transport is an impatient woman. She told the Labour Party conference on Monday that this was so. Now impatience is not necessarily a bad attribute if it is used deliberately, and if it is allied to full knowledge of the subject. Impatience becomes dangerous, however, if it takes possession of commonsense or if it becomes allied to wrong motives. This is a hazard Mrs. Castle must guard against when dealing with overall policy for inland transport in this country.
Anyone whose views are not extremist will admit that transport policy is not something that can be reduced to a dogmatic formula. Just as transport facilities must retain flexibility for optimum value to the community, so must Government thinking be flexible.
Government thinking must also be precise and clearly defined. This, unfortunately, is not the case. That the transport thinking of Labour Party conference delegates should be either biased, uninformed or woolly is understandable; the so-called transport debate on Monday proved this to be so. But it is neither understandable nor excusable that Government thinking should (at the kindest interpretation) appear to be equally biased, uninformed and woolly.
It might sometimes be fair to ask who is running Government policy on transport—Mrs. Castle Mr. Sidney Greene. Inevitably the NUR gener secretary wanted legislation to establish an int grated transport system. Accepting this (just inevitably) Mrs. Castle said: "You will get the legi lation for which you ask, and I hope in the ne session of Parliament". But what the legislation w be remains as vague and indefinite as it was whi Mrs. Castle published her White Paper on transpc policy last July. The White Paper itself carried ti industry no farther than did a statement by the la Minister, Mr. Tom Fraser, almost a year ago.
According to Mrs. Castle, in Monday's debat her White Paper was "an essential framewoi based on principles and policies within which detailed plan could be drawn up". In other word she reserves the full right to have another go. Whet This year? Next year? Road transport has had ma than enough of indecision.
And how much confidence can one feel in Minister of Transport who says publicly that sl would like to see abnormal indivisible loads tran ferred to coastal shipping services? Certainly the loads are an inconvenience to road users; but ho would she get them to and from the docksassuming they can be loaded?