Th e Tory tragedy Nothing can have saddened Conservative hearts more
than the absurd excuse for a Programme to combat inflation put forWard by Mr Heath and the Shadow Chancellor, Mr Carr, at last weekend's conference for condidates. Here were men, who had clearly learnt nothing and forgotten nothing from their disastrous experience of economic management in government, °ffering the same tired palliatives again, in the hope that the electorate, having refused to be fooled last time, will take still another bite at the poisoned cherry. All the TorY leaders agreed, with the rest of us, that inflation is the major problem facing Britain today. The central idiocy of Mr Heaths plan to meet it was expressed in his own words: he announced that he would protect those suffering from inflation — "that does not just mean pensioners and others living on state benefits, but the millions of people in the middle range of incomes, people like commuters, officeworkers and the self-employed"; and, no doubt, Tom, Dick and Harry as well.
All Mr Heath and Mr Carr were therefore promising to do was precisely what they failed to do last time. The instruments they proposed — restraint on pay and prices, income protection and positive encouragement to increased production — were precisely those which failed last time. True, Mr Carr promised restraint in public expenditure, but so vaguely and generally that one could see no promise of the radical reduction which alone can reduce inflation. Moreover, encouragement to efficient production, in the Tory book since the passing of the Industry Act, means nothing but massive subsidisation, itself a principal cause of inflation. The state of the Conservative opposition has now become a national tragedy, and no major political force stands between society and its destruction by inflation.
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