NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE election programme set out in the Labour Party pamphlet "Labour Believes in Britain" will raise in an acute form the more important question whether Britain believes in Labour. The recent County Council elections have suggested one answer to that, and the contents of the pamphlet are likely to confirm it. The outstanding feature of the programme is a further dose of nationalisa- tion, and against that the electorate should set its face like flint. There is no reason to believe that any single one of the industries already nationalised is working better today than it would have under private ownership, and there is no conceivable justification for nationalisation except the prospect of increased efficiency. In the cement industry, to take one only of those now marked down for nationalisation, there is not the smallest ground for any such assump- tion ; the obvious reason for decreeing nationalisation here is that a few able and enterprising firms have now most of the industry in their hands, and it therefore happens to be comparatively simple to take it over. In regard to water-supply, it may be claimed with some show of reason that this essential service, like gas and electricity, should be in public hands. But in fact it is mainly in public hands already, and municipalities and county councils are likely to manage it quite as efficiently as a central body, and in most cases more so. The general conclusion is that we have had more than enough nationalisation as it is, and if the Labour Government is going to ask the electors for more that is a very good reason why the electors should vote Conservative. These are only preliminary reflections on a document issued at such a date as to make more extended discussion of it in this issue of the Spectator impracticable.
