Home thoughts from abroad
Jo Grimond
When I returned from Sicily last week I found that, according to the British press, the sky had fallen — St John-Stevas had be-en dismissed. Neither this, nor for that matter any other British news, made much stir in the Italian press. Rightly, I think. One thing that makes this country difficult to run is that many of its political Fommentators, living on each other's opinions, are obsessed with the trivia of politics, responding like Pavlov's dogs to the sound of certain names, and for the most part badly informed. On top of this. sub-editors unerringly supply the wrong adjective. Savage' precedes the word 'cuts' even When these cuts are in the most wasteful 'More of government expenditure. ,More bad news for local authorities', they say, when everyone should rejoice that extravagance is being, very gingerly, tackled.
Meanwhile, as the centre party ploy lnlmers away, fanned by constant publicity, other interesting political news is Ignored, There have, for instance, been two notable speeches in the House of Comini °ns. Mr Michael Brown, the Conserva t _ ve Member for Brigg and Scunthorpe, actually .7 supported the proposed closure of the Normanby Park steel works in his constituency as being in the long-term interests of both his constituents and the nation. Such supreme good sense was described by one Labour Member as 'a speech of grand and gross betrayal', though he praised its courage, as well he might. Mr David Mudd, the Conservative Member for Falmouth, suggested, when discdsing a Bill which will transform two quangoes into one, that we did not need a fishing quango at all: a view which received no support from the Government.
I mention these two speeches not only for their intrinsic merits but because they show that there is still an underground in the Tory Party which wants to take a critical look at the accepted wisdom. Anyone who frequents the House of Commons knows that the Government are not striking out on a new radical path, that they are not polarising politics. On the contrary, things are very much as they used to be. The new fisheries quango will be bigger and more expensive to run than the two it replaces put together. The only diffetence between Tory and Labour is about how many billions of pounds are to be supplied by the taxpayer to ducks lame or sound. And if Labour were in office, I suspect that they would dish out no more money than the Tories do. The Government have attempted no radical changes in structure — neither in politics (electoral reform and the second chamber), nor in the nationalised industries (denationalisation or splitting them up, workers' co-ops), nor in local government (strict definition of its functions, new methods of finance and loosening of planning). It is now probably too late.
What Mrs Thatcher does not need is a new economist. They are thick on the ground already at a time when it is doubtful whether the psychological presuppositions of economics hold good. She will not achieve much by putting in experts from Marks and Spencer or Lazards — for you would soon reduce Marks and Spencer to inefficiency by nationalising it. What she needs are some more radical politicians. The recent shuffle does not seem to me of much moment, though it has removed an able minister from the crucial responsibilities of defence to the unimportant job of Leader of the House.
But to return to Sicily. If more English people went to Palermo, they should at least be able to get their woes in perspective and curb their self-pity. There must be tens of thousands of people in Palermo enduring poverty undreamt of in this country. Our unemployed are in clover beside the great majority of Sicilian workers. That may not be surprising, but as a member of the EEC Britain has some responsibility. It seems extraordinary that we should get grants from the EEC while the squalor of Southern Italy persists. I find it strange that socialists in particular, who believe in equality and in the power of state funds to cure all ills, should accept the high salaries of Brussels and try to get all they can out of EEC funds. 1 have heard no talk from them of rich Britain holding back. I myself am sceptical of the efficacy of grants. I find the enthu siasm for the Brandt report somewhat sinister when drummed up by the same people who clamour for more state aid, higher benefits and more bureaucrats at home. Even if we were prepared to cut down on the welfare services to make room for help to other countries, does it make much sense to put more effort behind policies which too often put money into the pockets of governments and do little to improve the long-term standards of the poor?
Though I was a member of Danilo Dolci's committee long ago, after a week in Sicily I am hardly in a position to say what can be done. But the Italian government has encouraged vast industrial expansion largely based on oil (there are about 20 miles of oil refineries etc outside Syracuse), and still squalor persists. I suspect that the framework in which men of enterprise and ability can flourish is still lacking.
'Abroad' is still a place of myth to most ot the British. You go there on holiday, and on holiday you adjust your responses. Holiday excursions are excursions into unreality. Otherwise, why go? Europe is across the Channel, which clearly demarcates it as un-British. It is the archetypal un-British area — geographically, but more especially in spirit. It is more un-British in some ways than India, for it has never collected, except perhaps at a few places like Nice, even a few hairs of the British way of life. In the days when the British made an impact on its social life, they had as yet failed to define themselves as British. But now, if membership of the Common Market is to mean anything, it must mean that the British in Europe cease to feel so Britishly. That may be depressing: the romance of the Channel will finally fade. But unless there is much more common feeling than exists at present, the EEC will remain for the British an artificial and un-British affair. When I see signs that poverty in Sicily is considered to be of more importance than the portfolio the British Commissioner gets in Brussels, I shall believe that the Common Market is making progress.
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