Evening star., 1949-08-06

in the prevailing moral crisis" is reprint
ed from the London Economist for July 80:
Mr.. Churchill has, until recently, main
tanned that it is a weakness for a party In
opposition to have too definite a policy.
Perusal of the Conservative Partys policy
document, "The Right Road for Britain" Ito
which Mr.. Churchill himself contributed a
foreword), should be enough to convince
most people that his earlier view was the
right one. A Conservative opposition. in
present circumstances, faces a most painful
dilemma as soon as its leaders try to set pen
to paper. Any one can see that the condi-
tions of life that will confront the next Par
lament are going to be very different indeed
from those that have prevailed ever since
1945 and that still, within this country pre-
vail today. At some point-perhaps not very
distant-the British people are going to wake
up to the fact that their economic life-and
especially those parts Of it that have been
intrusted to the state-is based upon as
sumptions about their internal and external
earning power that simply do not correspond
to the facts. Once that realization daWns
there will be premium on politicians who
can convince the country that they know
how to raise the earning power and reduce
the outgoings in the least painful manner
in short. there will be premium on those
whose speciality is efficiency rather than on
those whose specially is generosity.
So much is practicable with certainty. But
until the moment Of enlightenment comes,
to say these things is unpopular and will lose
votes What. then. is a Conservative Party,
faced with the necessity (for it must be pre-
sumed to be necessity to produce a policy.
to do? Any document they produce must be
either vague or insincere. It is to the credit
OF the Tories that their present document
has chosen vagueness. There is not very much
IN 1t that will be a positive embarrassment
to them If they find themselves in office in
changed conditions about this time next wear.
And there are quite a lot Of statements
which, though abstract enough to do little
electoral harm now. could provide the
foundation for realistic policy later.
Anybody who sets out to express judg-
ment on the manifesto of q political party
ought first to ask himself whether he accepts
the basic premise on which every such docu
ment is drafted-that it should be designed
to catch votes. II this premise is accepted,
then the Tory craftsmen have not done
so badly as the rough handling they have
had in the press would imply. They have
been criticized on the right for being in
sufficiently fortnight in their anti-Socialism,
and for not promising an orgy Of denational-
ization. But it would have been sheer hum
bug to have promised anything Of the sort
Nobody supposes that the coal mines, or the
railways, or the electricity or gas industries
could be handed back to private enterprise
even II a Conservative government wanted
to do So Indeed, it Is a sounder criticism of
the document to say that it goes too far III
denationalizing road transport. There is no
point at all in having "a Transport Commits
sion without giving it the possibility OF
justifying its existence
There have also been criticisms of the
promise to reduce taxation being coupled
with number of proposals to increase ex-
penditure. 1t is true that the promised
increases are specific, and though some of
them are good in principle, they may prove
to be embarrassing If they have to be imple-
mented in a time of crisis. There is to be
equal pay for women in the public services
and higher pay for the armed forces, and a
number OF changes in the social services
which are all small, but all in an upward
direction. The promises of economy, on the
other hand, are vague and equivocal. The
four sentences on the food subsidies are such
masterpiece of ambiguity that they deserve
quotation in full:
The Socialist government Is alarmed at
the effect of the food subsidies on the level
OF taxation. They have set an upper limit
to them. A large immediate reduction
would have serious effect upon the cost
OF living. We believe that their high level