The Press FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1973. The stop-gap policy

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33384, 16 November 1973, Page 8

The Press FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1973. The stop-gap policy

The Minister of Trade and Industry (Mr Freer) made only one convincing prediction when he announced the latest consolidation and extension of price control regulations. He acknowledged that they are too complicated and he expects that people will need a lot of instruction on what they mean and on how they should be applied. When the Government was elected it assured the country that it had a plan to deal with rising prices. The “ plan ” is now revealed as a succession of regulations, threats, promises, and still more confusing regulations. Widespread hopes that the Government would bring a fresh and firm hand to economic matters are being dashed week by week, and the Prime Minister’s promise that no-one had anything to fear from a Labour Government now reads like a sick joke. The Government’s measures may yet restrict inflationary pressures without seriously damaging the economy — at the price of confusion, bureaucratic interventions and delays, and the uneven applications of controls. The great new industry that Mr Freer seems determined to bequeath to this country is likely to be an administrative department filled with inspectors, auditors, and economic commissars. He wants the co-operation of all sections of the community; and the least that the community can do is to try to co-operate until the Government’s latest scheme has proved its worth. The best encouragement to this end lies in Mr Freer’s own statement that the latest measures are to a large extent no more than a stop-gap arrangement. But that is surely as shame-faced an appraisal as a Minister could make of his own schemes. The Government has put its own controls on rises in wages and expects this pressure to be reinforced by employers. It has picked out some industries and commodities for sharper treatment than others; and the likely result will be that those industries which are under the firmest restraints will become less efficient, and less progressive or productive. It has encouraged a business boom that is producing a rash of shortages. It wants investment to increase production; yet it is doing much to deter this investment Perhaps the Government should read carefully the Labour Party manifesto for the 1972 General Election and try to remember what its grand plan was meant to produce.