The case against import controls
LETTERS
From Robert Skidelsky, Jossleyn Hennessy, Ben Whitaker, MP, Sylvia Haymon, Harold Evans, Theo Doganis, David Morse, Dr N. I. Ogbuehi, Ewart Milne, Oji Umozurike, Dr K. S. Walsh Brennan, Miss Julie Everard, Lady de Zulueta.
Sir: Mr Peter Jay is being extremely naive if he seriously believes that decisions like the one whether or not to put on import controls are ever taken for primarily technical reasons (11 October). Does anyone today really claim that Wilson's opposition to devaluation was governed by technical considerations—espe- cially after Mr Jay's own revelation that the majority of experts had recommended devalua- tion long before?
In real life, facts and technical arguments are invariably interpreted in the light of prejudices and general views, in England, usually con- cealed, as Mr Bogdanor says (4 October). The sole question is whether these general views reflect the " reality of today's world or that of the world a hundred years ago. Keynes once observed that men who pride themselves on their open minds are more often than not slaves to some long-dead thinker. And in opposition to import controls we usually find, as Sir Roy Harrod wrote last week, a 'subconscious addic- tion to Gladstonian thinking,' more particularly, a presumption in favour of free trade at all costs. People like Mr Jay will always be pre- pared to 'consider' import controls, but will find that it is always `too early'—until, that is, they are left with no other choice.
The real issue embedded in the controversy is in essence very simple : whether this country is prepared to take responsibility for its own economic destiny, or whether it is content to remain forever a prisoner of circumstances be- yond its control. In other words, the question is psychological, not technical, a question of courage, not of precise economic calculation. Of course, we need precise economic calculation as well—but the sums, I suggest, will add up differently depending on which side of the psychological barrier we find ourselves.
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