A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK
EVERYONE who listened to the nine o'clock news on Wednesday night must have felt considerably deflated. We had been keyed up for stern sacrifices that would have gone a long way towards putting us on the road to financial and economic recovery; and by a vigorous effort we had prepared ourselves for what we should get. In the event we got practically nothing that we did not know before. We knew there was to be a saving of £144,000,000 on food. We knew there was to be a saving of £10,000,000 on timber. We knew there were to be severe restrictions on foreign travel. We knew there was to be some saving on films and some saving on the forces over- sea. What we did not know was that the basic petrol allowance was to be not merely reduced, but abolished ; and I wish we did not know it now. The saving is L5,000,000, out of a total of £228,000,000, and it seems to me to create more disproportionate hardship, inconvenience and industrial dislocation than any other. Life since the war has been readjusted, for large sections of the population, on the basis of limited reliance on the private car ; manu- facturers have made great preparations to increase output, and export markets are steadily being closed to them ; their business will neces- sarily be seriously affected. Is it worth it? And is it quite certain that the petrol we need cannot be got from sterling areas?
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