l< A Spectator's Notebook
NOBODY CAN FEEL satisfied at the way in which Treasury control of expen- diture is exercised; but I do not think that what Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick ad- mitted was his 'aggressive' evidence about it before the Select Committee on the Estimates takes us much farther towards finding a better system. His argu- ment that control is so slow only because civil servants who fail 'are not treated sufficiently ruth- lessly,' coupled with his dark hints about the need for enforced retirement at sixty and no GCB for the failures, is, surely, only going to encourage that type of Treasury mentality whose first deter- mination is never to take any action which could in any circumstances be criticised. Certainly it is at variance with his .initial appeal for a more modern approach to the whole subject. Sir Ivone's personal experience in these matters is rather narrow (in the Control Commission for Germany and the Foreign Office), and his arguments sound petulant rather than informed; they hardly touch on the chief problem, which is how to endow Treasury control with the flexibility necessary to make the most of the country's resources in a changing economic world. But perhaps Sir Ivone's new role as a watchdog for the community on the Independent Television Authority will now be put to good use. I can imagine few places where it is more needed.
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