Though there was always the danger that the Labour Government
with its vast majority would gradually initiate a totalitarianism of the Left there have not been many signs of it so far. But Tuesday of this week brought two of them, and very disturbing they are. I read this in The Times:
" Mr. George Isaacs, Minister of Labour, producing his own trade union membership card, declined yesterday to open a Press con- ference at Newcastle until all reporters present had produced theirs, which all the reporters did."
Now this is manifestly a move towards a gross infringement of the
liberty of the subject. Why on earth should journalists be dragooned into joining a particular union, or any union, unless they choose? Precisely the same issue was raised in the House the same day, when Mr. Ness Edwards, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Labour, answering a question about a number of tramway workers with whom the majority of employees at a certain depot refused to work because they belonged to a rival union, referred defiantly to " a seat union," and obviously approved the attempt of the majority to make everyone toe their own particular line. That the Ministry of Labour should identify itself enthusiastically with this tyranny is singularly ominous:
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