Appeasement Sir: Your leading article Outside the law (22 January)
is surely inaccurate in stating that 'Under Mr Heath the Conservatives almost outdid Labour in their terrified reluctance . . to bring them [the unions] Within the conspectus of the law.' What about the industrial Relations Act of 1971, aimed at doing just that ? Alas, Mrs Thatcher has already announced that the Conservatives, if and when in Power, have no intention of re-introducing it, an unnecessary gesture of appeasement at this stage, and in fact the opposite of 'a firm promise to bring the unions within the law.'
'Bashing the unions' may be a weasel Phrase, but it is difficult to see how such exercises in union power as the phasing out a Pay-beds in hospitals, and the (albeit trivial) raising of the fees for transferring vehicle registration marks, can be prevented without something akin to bashing, motivated as they are by envy and spite rather than anY concern for the public good.
rE. W. Waddington
Lagg a n House, Sunningdale, Berkshire
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