Mr. Shinwell may in many ways be a very good
Minister of Fuel and Power ; on that I express no opinion. But he would be a very much better Minister if he were a much more silent Minister. Consider some of his recent observations. When the electricity com- panies gave notice that electricity would have to be rationed this winter, Mr. Shinwell described the statement as a lot of nonsense, though everyone knew, and knows, that in the present state of coal production electricity supplies will have to be cut. That was on the 13th of September. On the lath Mr. Shinwell said as regards domestic consumption "people are getting more coal now, and will
get more coal during the winter than they got before the war." Twelve days later : "We do not require to increase the labour force in the industry, which is now about 700p00, except as regards the repair of natural wastage. It is a completely erroneous conception that more men are required." There is therefore no need at all to bring Poles into the mines. Now, on Tuesday, comes a declaration which threw the neurotic Stock Exchange out of a slow recovery into a new slump, to the effect that a voluntary saving of at least to per cent, in the consumption of coal, gas and electricity, domestic and industrial, is essential. The position is obviously critical. Mr. Shinwell, who in September ridiculed the rationing of electricity and proclaimed that no more men were needed in the mines, now talks of "a very grave risk of breakdown." If he wants to divert attention from his own failure to increase production to demands on other people to reduce consumption he will not succeed.
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