A National Government ?
SIR,—In advocating a coalition, Mr Desmond Don- nelly may well be sincerely concerned for the coun- try's best interests. Mr Donnelly, however, is one of those politicians who can be left-wing on one issue and right-wing on another, whether due to broad- mindedness or illogical thinking it is impossible to deduce.
It seems very probable that support for a coalition will increase in the Labour party in direct proportion to that party's increasing troubles, and as nemesis looms nearer. No doubt this will be seen through, and will fool no one, but I have an uneasy feeling there may be plenty of Conservatives, particularly the progressives, who would regard it as worthy of consideration.
All the points set out by Mr Donnelly, except one, come well within the present official Conserva- tive policy, so that obviously the best way to achieve them is to have a Conservative government. The exception is, as he puts it, '.. . to right the country's balance of payments and to establish the basis for a growing standard of life within the basis of a mixed economy.'
This idea of a mixed economy, of finding salva- tion through some ideal middle way, is symptomatic of the intellectual debility which is afflicting politics at the present time. The fallacy of this has been ex- posed, clearly and logically, by F. A. Hayek, and his conclusion is pertinent: 'Nothing seems at first more plausible, or is more likely to appeal to reasonable people, than the idea that our goal must be neither the extreme decentralisation of free competition, nor the complete centralisation of a single plan, but some judicious mixture of the two methods. Yet mere common sense proves a treacherous guide in this field.
'Although competition can bear some admixture of regulation, it cannot be combined with planning to any extent we like without ceasing to operate as an effective guide to production. Nor is "planning" a medicine which. taken in small doses, can produce the effects for which one might hope from its thoroughgoing application. Competition and central direction are alternative principles used to solve the same problem, and a mixture of the two means that neither will really work and that the result will be worse than if either system had been consistently relied upon.'
J. M. ANGELL
30 Ivy Road. Sutton Coldfield
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