bird's eye
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view by the Hawk II Pin-ups with a difference Introducing DE News, the new monthly newspaper of the Department of Employment, Secretary of State Maurice Macmillan says his department "is in an unprecedented state of evolution and reform".
It would perhaps be unkind to say that the DE — which lost its P (for productivity) when the Tories won office — is at sixes and sevens. Having liquidated the National Board for Prices and Incomes because the Board had trodden on some sensitive toes on both sides of industry, we must now endure the Price Commission and the Pay Board, both agencies being tipped as everlasting.
The Draft Bill now before Parliament provides for the amalgamation of the Price Commission and the Pay Board "into a single Agency, to be known by such name as may be specified in the Order". Mr Aubrey Jones, former chairman of the PIB, must be laughing.
I notice that the problems of small firms in applying the Code of Industrial Practice are being examined by the CIR — Commission on Industrial Relations. In road transport firms some significant moves have been made since the Industrial Relations Act became law, though there is still much to do. The CIR's survey will be useful if it helps to make comprehensible an Act which delights lawyers — and fills most employers and trade unionists with dread.
Did you know that employers must now pin up copies of their insurance certificate at all premises, not only at head office, proving that they are covered against liability to employees for injuries or disease caused at work? Failure to display the opy certificate makes you liable to a £50 fine, and failure to insure could lead to a fine of E200 a day.
II Exit line?
There is hidden talent among our civil servants! Inspired by the news that John Peyton had authorized £50m for the Tyneside Rapid Transit system, DoE oress officer Don Fawell, himself a native )1. South Shields, dashed off — for publiuttion in DoE World — the following 3eordie hymn to be sung to the tune of 3laydon Races:—
A! me lads, we've got war Rapid Transit, fall the way foe Whitley Bay
place a've aalways fancied.
Or roon an' roan the undergroon For a Sarraday neet's enjoyment.
An' aall that the construction work'll dee for unemployment.
We took the train frae Manors, Me boys we had a crowd on.
Away we went 'long By/car straight Through Waalsend on tae Howdon. Past Percy Main we speed the train Toe North Shiels an' the Fish Quay. Tinmouth's heor; we'll hey wor beor, An' a rum tae make us frisky.
We're back on board for Cullercoats.
The fishwives they are waitin'.
Aall the lads is in the pubs Toastin Johnny Peyton.
Fffty million quid he got Oot of the Exchequor.
Sae heor's a cheor for Johnny lad, Let's raise it tae the echo.
We'll hey another room, me lads, For Geoffrey Rippon's sake.
Without his help in cabinet This might hoe been a wake.
Sae Johnny's health and Geoffrey's health An' doon the hatch it gans.
Back on board the train me lads, Environmental fans.
. . . and more of the same.
It must be coincidence that Don has now been moved to principal information officer at the Department of Health and Social Security!
• New enemy?
Road transport has enough critics these days without creating new ones; though I'm not sure whether the Women's Lib supporters in the Commons last Friday will have directed their wrath towards transport or the sponsors of the Dykes Bill, Mr Dykes' measure was the first to be discussed when the House met at 11 am and not until it had run its course could Mr William Hamilton's Anti-Discrimination Bill make its appearance.
The hours passed, and the restiveness among Mr Hamilton and his Parliamentary supporters was matched by stirrings in the public gallery, packed with women who had come to see that they got their rights.
By ten past one Mr George Cunningham, a sponsor of the Dykes Bill, could contain himself no longer and after his suggestion of a later committee discussion had been ignored, he called out "Filibuster!"
The debate went on. . ,but by 2.13 pm the Speaker evidently thought enough was enough, and two minutes later it was all over. But the If hours left for the debate on women's rights was not long enough for a vote to be taken, and the Hamilton Bill was talked out — to the disgust of the public gallery and many of those in the Chamber. No doubt road transport will get the blame as usual.
• The mighty pen
Since lorries became a public issue, local as well as national papers are getting an unprecedented postbag on the subject; clippings from quite a few letters columns come my way.
One particularly angry exchange has been going on in the Enfield Gazette, but I must say that the editor has given vast amounts of space for the "defence" — which all seems to stem from a certain L. G. Harper. None other, I understand, than our friend Len Harper, of the London hq of the Road Haulage Association!
Mind you, as a resident of the district, Len has written from his home address; and what could sound a more environmentally pure source of column inches detailing the merits of road transport than "Monastery Gardens"?
• Articulate
There is, in fact, quite a lot of sensible local coverage of the lorry issue these days. I was particularly impressed by a piece in the Brighton Evening Argus last week in which a PD Transport artic driver, John Knight, showed that he was articulate as well as articulated and told an Argus reporter who accompanied him in the cab for a journey through Sussex some of the hard facts of transport life — not least, for example, that Sussex was about 20 years behind the times in providing roads for essential traffic.
• Oh, Syon!
So a new home has been found for London Transport's historic exhibits, which will be evicted when the Clapham Museum closes in April. The buses, trolleybuses, trams and underground trains spanning nearly 150 years of public transport are to be housed in a new permanent home at Syon Park, Brentford, Middlesex — which is an estate of the Duke of Northumberland.
Not only will the oldies get a good showing in a large building, but London Transport said this week that they will add to the collection as existing vehicles are phased out of service.