Devotion digestion
Sir: It was a bitter disappointment that the Queen's Speech made no mention of a substantial move towards creating a truly private enterprise economy by a policy of denationalisation. It is of course true that there is to be the 'hiving off' of certain minor activities but this pales almost to insignificance against the sheer size of the major nationalised industries; indeed the proposed hiving off programme does not even counterbalance the nationalisation of Rolls-Royce. The Conservative party in not the party of the mixed economy, it is the party of private enterprise. It is no part of our philosophy to demand that the state should control the commanding heights of the economy; on the contrary the very fact that the nationalised industries concentrate so much economic power in the hands of the state is of itself a major reason for urging their denationalisation. I must conclude therefore that although the Government's legislative programme contains much that is welcome and wholly admirable in the last resort it is incomplete and will remain so until denationalisation becomes a central part of that programme. P. T. Mongol', Economic Policy Group of the Monday Club, 51-53 Victoria Street, London SW1
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