Special report for The Week
About forty students and i
young socialists attended a conference i ' a eee” first nine months -- a balance sheet", The makes :
gani er the auspices of The Week, Voice of the Uni Review, by the Labour student or ‘ Sain open eee
ganisation, N.A.L.S.0: The main Ian Mikardo, M.P., and Frank Ward, of : 1 cee
oP. the staff of Tribune. Mr. Mik t speech was a tour de force, ; the wh : , satis :
taking ole range ! a most terse and yet sharply analytic Waye sei pean gr
Mr. Mikardo placed three achievements on the credi It had properly braved the displeasure of the bankers pegs ed C inne Atty its programme of legislation as laid out in the Queen's speech had — commendable 5 and Mr. Wilson had acted quite properly in governing as if with a majority of 50. But when the promises of the Party before the election were compared with its perfomance since, there were serious deficiencies. In at least thirty important sectors, pre-election pledges had either not been sustained, or had actually been dishonoured. In economic policy, the failure to apply physical controls, even such obvious ones as exchange control, imports controls, or effective regional development controls, forced the dovernanat to rely on fiscal measures, bribery and exhortation as its main "planning" weapons These were insufficient. No rational overall fuel and energy policy was being ‘ elaborated. No transport plan was being counterposed to Beeching's measures. Taxes were not being used selectively. In public owership, no measures were yet mooted to take over water, and more important, the pledge to start new public enterprises on a competitive basis in growth sectors of the economy were not yet being taken up. In the field of exports, the promised long-term contracts with Commonwealth territories, based on state trading, had not materialised. Neither had any significant increase in East-"Jest trade. Wage-planning had not in any ti — with overall planning, which made Mr. Brown's policy quite
eas Ce
In social policy, the minimum income guarantee had been deferred until the next session. This could be understood: but was no reason to defer action to rectify outstanding injustices. Many hardships could be alleviated by administrative action which was not being taken. In education expenditure had been curtailed. In housing, the pledge to repeal the rent act was being honoured by a measure which threatened to introduce a most dangerous element of decontrol in rents, while building was being thwarted by skyhigh interest rates. A two tier system of finance, or cheap money, was essential to the housing programme. No steps were to be taken to ratify the ILO convention on equal paye The Government's policy on immigration had turned out to be entirely different from what had been promised.
Lastly, in the fields of defence and foreign policy, no overall cuts had been made in the size of the defence estimates, whilst the Polaris base and the British nuclear arm were both being preserved in flat contradiction to party policy. If anything our foreign policy showed an even closer dependence on the U.S.A. than that of Sir Alec. This had revealed itself in innumerable sectors: Guiana, the total abandon/"“oF disengagement in Europe, and equivocation about the supply of war materials to South Africa, all figuring among them. A widerawing discussion took place on this indictment, which tended to settle on the urgent need for a sharp response from the left at the Blackpool conference this September. It is very clear that on many of these points there will be a significant opposition to the platform. The television cameras will unveil a new image of the Labour Party, in which the priorities of socialism can be very clearly spelt out to the public at large.