Sharp political division on Civil List proposals

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32786, 10 December 1971, Page 21

Sharp political division on Civil List proposals

(N2,P.A,-Reuter copyright. Cable news digest)

LONDON.

Mr Heath’s Conservative Government faces a lively political battle over a proposal by a Parliamentary Select Committee that the grants to the Monarchy and Royal Household be doubled to almost £m a year. The proposal has come, after months of deliberation, from an all-party committee of House of Commons members who argue that the extra money is needed to avoid reducing the scale of Royal splendour to which Britain is accustomed.

Throughout the committee’s proceedings, there were sharp divisions on straight party lines on what should be done about the Royal finances, and this is certain to be reflected when the House discusses the recommendations. The Labour Party has yet to declare its collective attitude to the committee’s report, but three Labour members of the committee voted against its recommendations. This suggests that the party will oppose it in the commons, and recommend, instead, a plan put forward by the chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party (Mr Douglas Houghton). His plan calls for the reconstitution of the Royal Household as a Department of State, administered by a Crown Commission with money voted annually by Parliament. The legislation required to implement the Select Committee’s recommendations seems unlikely to have either an easy or quick passage, but the increases adopted will apply from January 1, 1972. Approval of recommendations for increasing M.P.’s salaries will be sought before Christmas, with the intention that they should be-

come effective from January F 1. ' 8 It is expected that under the proposals, salaries will c be increased to £5OOO a year 1 from the £3250 set in 1964. t PRESS REACTION ; Commenting on the select Committee’s Report, the “Daily Telegraph” says that j the recommendations are j fair, and that ,-the committee emphasised that the need for an increase largely arose from pay increases j granted since 1952 to the staff of Buckingham Palace. , The “Guardian” takes the i view that the ; Monarchy is , "rather cheap,,as comparable ■ institutions go,” and adds that ( since the British people , prefer to keep the Monarchy, j they will have to pay for it i The “Financial Times” i thinks that the timing of the report is unfortunate, be- ■ cause the Government is now i urging wage restraint, and 1 the number of people out of i work is approaching one ; million. “It would be surprising if, : in these circumstances, there were not some grumbling from even the most loyal of : subjects,” the newspaper says. “The Tunes” comments: i "The difficulty about deter- ' mining the correct level of expenditure on the Royal Household at any particular time is that this is not an institution to which the techniques of post - benefit analysis can be applied. “What the British people do know is that they have a Monarch who is both popular and hard-working, a Royal Family whose general style of life and performance of their public duties commands wide approval, and there is no widespread demand either for more lavish display or for the comparative austerities of a bicycling Monarchy. “The task of the Select Committee was not, therefore, to provide for any radical change in the activities of the Royal Household, but rather to satisfy themselves that these operations were conducted with proper financial prudence, and to make the necessary adjustments for inflation.” Immigration ‘fantasies’ Another report which has aroused interest throughout Britain says that no city or town in the country wifi be overwhelmed by coloured immigrants unless a future government compels such people to live in specified areas. The 92-page report, published by the Yorkshire Office for. Community Relations, says that there is a serious misconception deliberately fostered in some quarters—that some places will be overwhelmed unless immigration is substantially reduced. The author of the docu-

ment Lord Wade, a former deputy-leader of the Parlia- • mentary Liberal Party, I emphasises that there is no . reliable evidence to suggest that places like Bradford, ' Leeds and Huddersfield face ■ Ulis prospect. i “Those who think that this I is likely are entering into the realm of fantasy,” he says. The “myths and fantasies about immigration” dealt with in the report include ’ these: : Commonwealth immigrants come to Britain to live ; off social benefits. 1 On arrival, every immigrant receives a gift of £5OO from the Government. Asians get income-tax relief for more than one wife. Lord Wade says: “The majority who have come here during the last 15 years belong to the working—that is the ‘earning’ sector —of the population, and they tend to put more into the economy than they take out in the form of benefits.” West Indians and Asians are reluctant to apply for supplementary benefits, because of the indignity of the questions asked, he says. Troublemaker or realist? Issues concerning coloured immigrants, and the name of Mr' Enoch Powell, M.P. for Wolverhampton, are synonymous, but it is about Powell the politician that Michael Robson, an N.Z.P.A. staff correspondent in London, writes this week. He has probably been prompted to do so by* Mr Powell’s accusation, widely reported in New Zealand, that there was "deliberate collusion” between Sir Keith Holyoake and the British Government to mislead the New Zealand people over the Common Market terms negotiated in Luxemburg. (The New Zealand Prime

Minister has since denied the | allegation categorically.) Irresponsible troublemaker, ( or champion of realism and ; honesty? It is not difficult , to find support for both these < assessments of Enoch Powell, Mr Robson writes. 21 YEARS IN HOUSE I The back-benches of the > House of Commons have' housed many original and ' powerful men in Britain’s ong Parliamentary history, ' but few have had more impact than Mr Powell. < An M.P. for 21 years, his i skill on the floor of the House ' and intellectual brilliance i made him one of the promising young Tories of the 19505, and in 1960 Mr Harold Macmillan rewarded him with the i post of Minister of Health, and promoted him to Cabinet : rank in 1962. When Mr Macmillan re- < signed in 1963, to be succeeded by Sir Alec DouglasHome, Mr Powell refused to serve under the new leader, and retired to the backbenches. After the party’s defeat in the General Election the next year, however, he returned to the Shadow Cabinet as defence spokesman under Mr Heath’s leadership. The restraint of working in a team has never sat lightly on Mr Powell’s shoulders, and some would say that a break with a man such as Mr Heath, who demands absolute loyalty, was inevitable. It came in April, 1968, when, at a Conservative Party rally in Birmingham, Mr Powell made an impassioned speech in which he said: “Britain must be mad, [ literally mad, as a nation, to ■ allow 50,000 dependants of ■ immigrants to enter the i country each year.” . In the resulting uproar, . Mr Heath sacked Mr Powell . and repudiated his views, i Since then, the member for Wolverhampton has been in . the wilderness as far »s the ; Tory hierarchy is corw ned, , but there-is no indicate ! that . he has lost any of his constituency support, and his ■ place at Westminster seems ; assured as long as he wants lit J INFLUENCE DECLINING ■ A slight, extremely intense man, in direct conversation Mr Powell .is charming and personable; he has a passion for pinpoint accuracy, and enjoys nothing better than entering into verbal combat over the exact and precise ’ meaning of a word or phrase. ‘ A powerful orator, he con- [ structs his speeches with ; minute care, but seldom con--1 suits a note as he leads his 5 listeners; towards what is } generally a prophetic and 1 doom-laden conclusion. There are signs, however, • that Mr Powell’s influence is 8 declining. Mr Heath and the ’ present Government have 5 sought to promote an image f of Mr Powell as a gadfly who - cannot be taken particu- - larly seriously; this has been i especially true on the Common Market issue, which Mr ■ Powell has opposed vigor-

ously and loudly in the last year. Mr Powell himself dismisses the idea that he is a rebel within the Tory Party, preferring instead the label of “honest critic.” He is in politics, he says, because he enjoys the life. As for assessing his role in Britain, Mr Powell says that is something for the historians. “It will give them something for their Ph.D theses in the future,” he says, "and I don’t want to spoil it for them.” Princess Anne in controversy The age of chivalry is not dead in Britain. A controversy of substantial proportions has broken out over the remark by one of the country’s leading showjumpers, Harvey Smith, about the ability, or otherwise, of Princess Anne to take part in the Olympics in

Munich next year if she is chosen to represent Britain in the three-day equestrian event At an Everton Football Club dinner, Harvey Smith said that Princess Anne—who had remarkable success in the European championships was “nowhere near Olympic standard” and then compounded this by adding: “If even a fourth-rate professional entered the sort of events which Princess Anne is taking part in, he would clear the deck of every prize in every event every time.” After these remarks were reported, Princess Anne did not lack defenders. Experienced horsemen jumped to her rescue, and Fleet Street echoed with stem rebukes about “ill-timed” and “boorish” criticism. Later, the Princess found a new champion, the Olympic rider, Richard Meade, who, flinging down the gauntlet, challenged Harvey Smith to a riding contest on the Duke of Beaufort’s estate—where the famous, and gruelling, Badminton horse trials are held for a stake of £5OO. To make matters more complicated, Buckingham Palace, two days earlier, had denied categorically the truth of reports published in America, that Princess Anne was at odds with the Queen over a secret romance with Richard Meade, and that the couple had been “forbidden to many by RoyaT decree.” Richard Meade maintains that he is challenging Harvey Smith for his criticism of three-day events, and nothing else. Harvey Smith, who maintains that he meant no personal criticism of Princess Anne in his original remarks, but was merely trying to avoid the possibility of her being forced into a gruelling competition for which she was not ready, has reserved judgment on the challenge, saying that he will have to think it over. Reports that the>Beefeaters at the Tower of London are dusting off its jousting lances have yet to be confirmed. But there is definitely a medii eval nip in the air. ; Expedition ; extraordinary I The eyes of Britons every- : where are on a group of : British Army officers and , men who have left Anchorage, Alaska, in the first phase of a 14,000-mile jour- ; ney from the Arctic to the ' tip of South America on a ; route which may eventually , become the completed PanAmerican Highway. ; The expedition may also > become the first to make the , arduous journey entirely by ' land vehicle—a feat which has not been successfully i accomplished before, accord--1 ing to the leader, Captain . Gavin Thompson. , Although many • other . groups have attempted to ’ make the route by automo- ! bile, they have always been ; defeated by the dense . Panama jungles. . The other members of the . team of six are Captain Peter Barry, Troopers Michael Webb and David Fletcher, Sergeant Michael Cross—all : of the Lancers (“Death or i Glory”) Regiment and a I civilian, Mr Timothy Nicholi son. I The venture, expected to i take five months and cost t the equivalent of $NZ267,860, ! is sponsored by the British . Museum, several exploration - societies, a British car manui facturer, the British Army, ■ the Royal Air Force, a host > of commercial concerns, and 5 the Governments of Colum--1 bia and Panama. Driving two specially - , equipped long-range* Land s Rovers, the team is now heads ing for the Yukon Territory, b where winter temperatures s dip to 70 degrees below zero, > and will continue down - through Canada, the west i coast of the United States, - and on to Mexico City. r They expect to reach - Panama City by mid-Decem-

ber, but have alloted extra time for any possible breakdowns. SECOND PHASE The second phase of the expedition is due to begin in January, when the team will be joined by about 50 scientists and members of the British Army who will help them to hack a road through 250 miles of jungle. This segment of the journey is expected to take three months, Captain Thompson says. He believes the greatest difficulties will be encountered in the swamps of what is known as the Darien Gap. A tiny block of land where the Atlantic Ocean almost meets the Pacific, the Isthmus of Darien also harbours dense snarls of jungle, wild'animals, and Indians who at one time purportedly practised headshrinking. The area has for years defeated road engineers from both North and South America.

Specially-designed rafting equipment will be flown in to help carry vehicles and men across large rivers, and radio communications and reconnaissance aircraft will assist the party.

Scientific members of the expedition will carry out ecological and other studies important to the over-all effort. Members of the group see the undertaking as a “spark” for the eventual completion of the Pan-American Highway, and a possible second “Panama Canal.” Once the expedition has

made it through the dense jungle, the group will return to its original six-man size and continue from Rio Leon, in Colombia, down through South American countries along well-established routes to Tierra del Fuego, on the southernmost tip of the continent. They expect to reach there some time in April. Everest bid planned Four Britons, including two who were in the ill-fated international expedition to the south-west face of Everest earlier this year, will be in a joint German-British team setting out to climb the mountain next March. Donald Whillans and Dougal Hasten were beaten 1800 feet from the summit of Everest. Other Britons in the team will be Christopher Bonington—who led the successful British Himalayan expedition to the south face of Annapurna in 1970—and the Scottish mountaineer, Douglas Scott. The team was announced in London by Mr Harold McCarthy, the co-ordinator of the expedition, who described the south-west face as "the hard way up.” "It Will be a severe test, and we are sending our best climbers,” he said. “Most expeditions choose the east route, via the south col. "Getting to the top by a new route would be a

splendid climax to the Germans’ Olympic Year.” The team will be led by Dr Karl Herrligkoffer, aged 56, from Munich. Dilemma for industrialists The “Daily Express” has warned British industrialists that they are being left behind by the Japanese, French, Germans and Italians in the race for the rich Rhodesian market. The newspaper’s reporter in Salisbury, John Monks, says that the world’s trading nations are rapidly signing contracts that may result in Britain being locked out of the country for good. The task of the countries concerned is being made easy, Mr Monks says, because British salesmen and businessmen are forbidden to approach Rhodesia until the final settlement agreement is signed next year. The correspondent reports that virtually every hotel room in Salisbury is at present booked out by foreign businessmen seeking to establish markets in Rhodesia. The Germans want to supply Rhodesia with pump, generator and turbine equipment, and, along with the Austrians also want to reorganise the country’s railway system. A French delegation which visited Rhodesia last week offered everything from telephones to jet fighters.