A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
ITHINK the most fiddling argument I have ever heard advanced by an Englishman in favour of his country pursuing a certain course of action is the fact that rather less than half the world pursues it already. Mr. Barnes, who seems to be the Minister of Transport, played this (to me) astonishing card when he told the House of Commons last week that 45 per cent. of the transport in the world is State-owned. If the figure had been 90 per cent. I would still think that the argument was irrelevant and unworthy. If foreigners do things well there is some point in holding them up as an example ; but the fact that they do things in a certain way is neither here nor there ; 90 per cent, of the world (at a guess) gets along without a Monarchy, 7o per cent, of it has no use for Christianity, more than half of it blows its nose on its fingers, and a very high proportion of it sleeps on the ground. These and similar statistics are not without interest, but I cannot discover in them the criteria of British domestic policy.
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