Comments on Beveridge te How far the Onlooker, a Conservative
Party publication, represents P the official views of the Conservative Party is a question probably a not admitting of a precise answer, but the comments in its current a( issue on the Beveridge plan clearly demonstrate a considerable di
chilliness on the subject in Conservative circles. The editorial com-
ment expresses regret that insurance against unemployment appears u to take precedence over the provision of employment. The explan - m tion is simple—that Sir William Beveridge was commissioned to deal with the one question and not with the other—and there is no special reason for regret. The cheap criticism that the scheme will break down if there is heavy unemployment, and is superfluous if all there is not, is glibly voiced in some quarters. The fact, of course to is that the scheme, with its figures for contributions and benefits— a which are purely provisional, and can be altered by the Govern- ment at will—does assume an average total of no fewer th 1,500,000 unemployed. It should certainly be in the power of the . post-war Government so to plan production and international trad
as to ensure not only that the total does not exceed that figure, but
that it falls substantially short of it. But nothing of that fell within Sir William's terms of reference. The scheme has already caught the imagination of the country, and though it may well be modified in many particulars, even a Cabinet of Lord Crofts could newt dare to jettison it.
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