WHY I JOINED THE GOVERNMENT by Frank Cousins
In the whole parliamentary history of this countr & newl elected Government has never faced the situation that boas Was today. We have to cope with the legacy of 13 years of Conservative neglect and. complacency and make an urgent start on reforms which are really neGessary but have been left in abeyance for so longe Major tasks have to be dealt with quickly, and they have to be achieved with a majority of only four votes.
This was the situation which faced the General Executive Council immediately after the election, when I rep»rted to them that Harold Wilson had invited me to become a member of the new Labour Cabinet. Their decision, which followed a long emergency discussion on this matter, was that I should take leave of absence to undertake this work, The Executive took the view, shared also by my Executive Officer colleagues and myself that in the present situation the new Prime Minister had the right to call upon anyone within our movemert to give such assistance as they possibly could. The problems are so big, the needs of the people of thecountry too urgent, for anyone to stand back. I had, therefore, reluctantly and regretfullp to revise my own personal desire often expressed publicly in the past - to remain actively working for the Union - and agree to take up a post in the new Government.
lly appointment as Minister of Technology follows naturally upon the work we have been doing in the Untin for the last few years, In resolutions, memoranda, speeches, at the T.U.C., the Labour Party and other conferences, through national and local agreements, we have urged the need to modernise industry in order to produce higher living standards and greater leisure. We have given a lead to the whdle movemant by insisting upon conditions of job security, re-training and higher wages which make a rapid rate of technology acceptable and welcome to the workers in. industry. Through my membership of the Départment of Scientific and Industrial Research, I have seen the other side of the story - the new ideas and @velopments of scientific thought and progress. Many from our movemant have frankly been appalled at the great waste in talent which recent years have shown and the number of ideas which this country originated and subsequently lost to other countries, the projects abandoned through lack of finance or development initiative. We have also been concerned that so little thought was given to the needs and interests of the people who were affected in the factories, offices and garages. I am grateful that we now heve a Government which is alive to these issues, end that I have been asked to play some direct part in the whole question of adapting science and technology in the service of the community.
This is a challenge to me personally in she new job = but it is also a responsihility for the whole of the movemant. We now have the opportunity to prove that our criticisms of incffective government were right, and we must now try to give the country the leadership it needs. - from the T & G.W. Record.