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abortions ever perpetre ea: the Bid), oe : ote wore ae one thing, it inpy the parliamentary droushsiei1's White Paper on incoves
olicy eee his White Paer which 3 to 32 per cent. IU WAS seen texceptionel’ pay increases down the circumstances in ‘ : towards higher
be justified: direct contributions ‘widespread ' would be gust hortages of manpower}; ‘general! or Wi anew pre ha the lével of wages in a particular inoue recognition that tne i¢ reasonable standard of living + was ‘too low to maintes” Out of line' with the rates paid or had fallen ‘seriously out: o 1 : all this the force
—_—or k to other workers. To give & J for similar wor : the 'norm' could only be of law would meen, first, A hoe More serkquely it altered by passing an amending eae bites as Lb Sandie would fossilise all tite | Oop eS = a are need to block at present, when there 1S clearly a he aeons whi ok “caanot them upeee there 1s not a union 1n 1) of fit its members into one or other (and usually severe. ° the 'exceptional' categories. Unless, therefore, ee are to be allowed to go on rising at more than 9 per cen a year, it is time the exceptions were a oe be narrowly. And, having re-defined them, they wil o San left in.a form which makes adjustment an administra ese not a legislative matter -- eAnother curiosity of the a was .the omission of any alternative to the fines laid down, in the scale of penalties .,. The question which will naturally occur to any potential offender is what punishment he would suffer if he refused to pay a fine. The answer, on the face of it, is none. It is, of course¢,the custom when . trying to ensure that the law is obeyed to provide for periods of imprisonment as a deterrent. to the non-payment.” of fines. But the custom wes thrown overboard when the ‘early warning' Bill was drafted, presumably to make it less unpalatable to the unions. Whitehall 'spokesmen', ... were quick to point out that imprisonment was not the only alternative to a fine. A man could, they said, have goods © to the value of the fine seized by officers of the court oe. The truth is, of course, that refusal to pay a fine would lead to imprisonment far contempt of court. But it is important to recognise that this would be a punishment for a different offence from those laid down in the Bill. : Imprisonment for contempt would, moreover, be indeterminatey it would last until the fine was paid, or until the judge decided that the contempt had been purged. Whether the unions would really prefer this to a clearly defind gaol sentence, is, to say the least, open to question."