The Jones Boy A mutual friend tells me that in
his view the criticism of Aubrey Jones that is prevalent today is unfair. I agree. The criticism should be aimed at the Government. The Government made a shrewd choice when it invited Mr. Jones to take on the chairmanship of the National Board for Prices and Incomes. But wisdom stopped there. It gave him a board that is almost a caricature of all boards whose membership streams back to that Treasury file which lists the names of worthy citizens for public service. Do we have a Tory ex-minister as chairman? Very well; let us balance him with a Socialist ex-minister as deputy. Balance an employer with a trade unionist, add a co- operatiVe peer (I mean a peer interested in the Co-operative movement), find an able candidate to fill the role known to Whitehall as the `statu- tory woman' and there you are. For all Mr. Jones's undoubted ability his board is neither better nor worse than fifty other boards designed in the old familiar way. The news item about camp beds being ordered for the board adds a touch of the ludicrous to a situation that is already undignified. No man and no board can do or should do as much as the Jones boy and his team are being asked to accomplish.
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