FORMER LABOUR MEMBER’S SCATHING CRITICISM OF NATIONALISATION POLICY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26916, 30 October 1948, Page 7

FORMER LABOUR MEMBER’S SCATHING CRITICISM OF NATIONALISATION POLICY

N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent

Rec. 10 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 29. The bitter attack made by Mr Ivor Thomas in a speech to the House of Commons giving the reasons for his resignation from the Labour Party has caused a good deal of eyebrow raising in political circles, and, it must be admitted, given satisfaction to the Conservatives. « i Mr Thomas declared that he resigned because he disbelieves in State control, which cripples the individual, in high taxation, and in nationalising steel. He dislikes planners, who, he said, in a brilliant phrase, are making Britain a land fit for zeros to live in. “ To bring in, a Bill for the nationalisation of iron and steel at this time when there are such grave events abroad calling for rearmament, and when our balance of payments is in such jeopardy, seems to me a wanton and reckless act,” said Mr Thomas. “As for the Parliament Bill, we all know perfectly well that the only reason for this Bill is to get the iron and steel measure through.”

Continuing, Mr Thomas said: “Moreover, the leader of the House (Mr Herbert Morrison) has asserted that there are other objects in mind. The people seemed to think that this can be* the only real object. “ The most obvious result of the Government’s activities in the past three years has been an immense concentration of power in* the hands of the State, and a corresponding VYeakening of the power of the individual to stand for himself. In the past three years nationalisation, economic planning, taxation policy and the housing policy have all contributed to this result. I do not say that this concentration of power has been deliberate—most Socialist members of Parliament would be horrified if they could see the type of society they are unconsciously creating. I deprecate it as strongly as the rest of us. If it was not the intention of the Government policy, it has certainly been the consequence of it, and it has now reached the point where it must give anxiety to all thoughtful men.

This Steel Bill will give the State the power of control over essential raw materials such as no person, however well-intentioned

and however competent, deserves to have entrusted to him. And after the last three years 1 have some doubts both of the competence and intentions of the Socialist Ministers.

The Government’s economic ideas m planning remind me of the man who kept a donkey. This poor British donkey was being kept on the principle that if its rations were steadily reduced it would not notice it and could live on nothing. But just when the plan was succeeding the donkey , cd. Perhaps,” said Mr Thomas amid loud Opposition applause, “ just before the election in 1950 the British donkey will be given a carrot. “ Ti \ e itching fingers of the planners cannot leave things alone,” he continued “Their grasping hands reach out to the man who wants to put up a house for himself or to the woman who wants to keep some hens in her back yard.

“The system is supported by elaborate private police forces which We t know about in our constituencies, and that is not the least disturbing feature. Now we have confiscatory taxation, which destroys the individual. Hard work, thrift and honesty no longer pay. The path of duty to-day leads only to the tax-gatherer’s office. There is no good in saving because if you save it will be taken from you. The Government has created a paradise for the football pools and the bucket shop. It has undermined the foundations of our industrial greatness. “You think you are. leading a revolution,” he told his recent colleagues. “The French revolution had the slogan of ‘equality, fraternity and liberty.’ The slogan of the Socialist revolution is ‘ utility, priority and austerity.’ ' “ For long I had hoped that the Labour Party would be the best instrument for raising the standard of life, both materially and spiritually, of the poorer classes of the community. But I see that the Ministers are bent on levelling it down and not levelling it up.

“But the heart of the country is still sound, and when it again has good leadership it will recover its place in the world. Even though no leadership has come from Downing Street in the past three years, the authentic voice of Britain has still been heard—as it was heard after Dunkirk, at Fulton, at Zurich, at The Hague, and at Llandudno. And when that voice can again command action as well as attention, there will be such a national revival as will astonish the world.” One commentator remarked: “It took some moments for Mr Churchill to grasp that he was being singled out for praise. He was most embarrassed.”