Socialist Low Ebb
If the survival of the present Government had depended only on the success or failure of its economic policy, the events of the last week would have brought it down once and for all. Indeed if the British public, punch-drunk from a succession of disastrous blows, were able to grasp the full gravity of its present plight it could hardly have allowed the latest admission of incompetence to pass. For when the Chancellor of the Exchequer has to announce cuts in imports of machinery the point of complete failure has been reached. It makes no difference that he recognises the cut of 25 per cent. in dollar imports to be a " thoroughly evil necessity." Nor does it matter that the Opposition regard the cuts as inevitable. Even the most ardent Socialist must recognise—and indeed the Government did recognise it long ago—that to cut imports of machinery and raw materials is to take away the tools without which Britain simply cannot finish the job of recovery. These cuts are not going to make the task easier in any way. They are going to make it harder. Consequently the Chancellor made a very bad mistake—a mistake damaging alike to the welfare of the country, to the election hopes of his party, and to his own reputation—when he decided to muffle the impact of this latest blow with a layer of hopeful phrases. It can be seen now that it was the mistake of a very tired man, but it was a slip at the critical point.
There are no really hopeful signs. The fact that dollar prices arc falling, so that the cut in the quantity of imports may be less than the 25 per cent. by which the value of such imports are to be reduced is not a genuine consolation, for the dollar prices offered for our own exports to America will also fall. The only answer to that is a greater quantity of such exports at reduced prices. But at this very moment it is announced that the imports of raw materials from dollar sources must be restricted, and the search for alternative sources elsewhere
is by no means certain to be a complete success. In the best of circumstances direct trade with the United States is not a strong prop to lean on, for at a pinch the Americans can be nearly self- sufficing. Yet there is no sign of a sudden spurt in British produc- tivity or of an end to new wage demands. Two days of debate droned away in Parliament without much sign of a sense of urgency. Essential decisions arc unlikely to be made until September. Socialist failure in the essential issues of economics can still be blanketed with the specious successes of the new social services and the mainten- ance of " full employment" which is only fully concealed unemploy- ment. But this cannot last much longer. Failure in essentials cannot be masked for ever by pseudo-planning which is really nothing more than the stringing together of expedients.
