Wage inflation
Sir: Commuters and other travel lers now face huge fare increases, Harold Wilson's Prices and Incomes Board seems to have been more efficient that Edward Heath's Industrial Relations Act, which is ineffectual in halting industrial blackmail and inflation. With 121 per cent pay rises inflation is inevitable.
The real masters of this country are the bloated bullfrogs who strut the stage at each industrial dispute. The wage demands of the workers' leaders are unrealistic and their allegiance is plain. The ordinary decent non-militant citizen is being systematically robbed just as surely as if his pocket were picked. It is all too easy for the wreckers.
As the purchasing power of the E is battered old age pensioners and those dependent upon private pension schemes without cost-ofliving bonuses are becoming poorer as the blackmailers get richer. Capital no longer assures an income to the investor. He is lucky if interest receipts are a sufficient hedge against inflation to keep the value of his capital intact. Our economy is sabotaged and our export trade hindered. We cannot progress in the face of constant unrest. We need a long period of industrial peace with a halt to all price increases and wage claims. There ought to be a united effort to lower the cost of living so that all could benefit.
Whatever their political party the great majority of our citizens are people of goodwill, but they have no voice because they are unorganised. They have been extraordinarily docile and patient for a very long time. Surely the time has now come for a new union to be formed — a nonpolitically aligned union to organise this great majority — a Citizens' Union. It could be the greatest union of them all.
At the end of each strike or ' goslow ' after the country has been held to ransom and large numbers of people have been inconvenienced, the people responsible, whether they be postmen, railmen, or some other faction, return to their posts after their victory and expect the same cheerful relationship with the public to be resumed. The enemies of the people are prepared to smile benignly upon us all after their victory at our expense. Life could be a little less comfortable for them in the circumstances if they had to deal with a vast, organised Citizens' Union which would oppose all anti-social activities which are detrimental to the well-being of the masses, and would be prepared to demonstrate against them.
A Citizens' Union could be mighty in numbers — the potential is there and a long-suffering public must be getting towards the end of its endurance. It needs a wellknown figure outside of politics to lead it — somebody non-controversial and of popular appeal. Robert Copping 4 Ronald Hill Grove, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex
Previous page
