No Action on Films
Mr. Harold Wilson's announcement on the British film industry in the Commons on Wednesday was not so much an anticlimax as the climax of a period of procrastination. It must now be clear to everyone that unless there is some modification of entertainment tax the British film industry, both on its production and its distribu- tion sides, will have to be drastically cut down. Mr. Wilson's attribution of the outcry against the tax entirely to interested parties within the industry ignored both the Plant Report, 'which he was supposed to be discussing, and public opinion. Naturally the President of the Board of Trade cannot make promises about what will appear in the Budget—particularly in a Budget which will probably not appear until after the General Election—but there was no sign in his statement that he even recognised the problem. Time and again in the past Mr. Wilson has attempted to give the impression that he was doing something about Government policy on films, but his somewhat inflated reference to the effects of the assistance given to British producers through the National Film Finance Corporation did not alter the fact that nothing of sub- stance has been done. But what is far worse than the miseries of the film producers and distributors is the failure of the President of the Board of Trade to give• any lead whatever concerning the recommendations in the recently published Plant Report. For the Government to take no line at all on the abuses which are known to exist in the film distributing industry is bad enough. But for a Government which pretends to be the enemy of monopoly to take no line is much worse. It may be that the prospect of a forth- coming election puts a brake on Government decision—though even that is a regrettable state of affairs. But for it to bring decision to a full stop on a subject in which delay may mean disaster is still more regrettable.
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