Walker's task
lt,is far too early yet to pass judgement on the reconstructed Department of Trade and Industry and its depolluted chief, Mr Walker, who is expected to perform there the miracle which Mr Davis failed to bring Off. But it is worth pointing to one or two differences between Mr Walker's last job and this one; as well as to some curious features of the structure of the DTI itself. First of all, while it was pointed out after the last general election that Mr Walker, and the man who was — effectively — his predecessor, Mr Anthony Crosland faced at the Environment department the serious difficulty of amalgamating the work of, and digesting, other government departments already well-established and presumably jealous of their independent existence, this in fact turned out to be a blessing rather than an obstacle to success. This was chiefly because, while Mr Crosland merely presided over the departments in his ministry, in a rather federal structure, Mr Walker was given authority. Added to this authority was the fact that Mr Walker proved to be a splendid manager of men; and that he was given a very powerful team, judiciously combining the experienced and able and the young, energetic and ambitious. Mr Walker's generalship was superb, and each of his ministers felt, not merely that he would not interfere with their work when it fitted harmoniously into the general plan, but also that, if they did need help or advice they woud getl it in the crispest forms.
The first difficulty Mr Walker faces now is the presence at the DTI of a Cabinet minister of equal rank, in Sir Geoffrey Howe. It is not necessary that the two men should consider themselves rivals for this consular system to create problems. For it is also the case that, given Sir Geoffrey's consumer-orientated brief, there will be a number of occasions on which his job of holding things back in the interests of the ordinary citizen will conflict with Mr Walker's anxiety to drive things on, and increase industrial efficiency through maximising profits.
It is not clear whether Mr Heath put Sir Geoffrey where he is because he could think of nowhere else to put him; or whether he has some ideal scheme of interlocking responsibilities in the department into which the Consumer ministry will fit. I suspect the former, if only because the latter is so difficult to visualise. But sending Sir Geoffrey along with Mr Walker undoubtedly adds yet another indigestible chunk to an already overburdened structure.
And that is the main problem about the DTI. A succession of tamperings with its constitution, and a succession of changes of policy, have made its internal balance severely unstable. Once upon a time, as they say, there was a Board of Trade. It was Sir Alec Douglas-Home who started the conversion of that quaint old thing into a Trade and Industry ministry, when he made Mr Heath Secretary of State for Regional Development and President of the Board of Trade in 1963. Mr Wilson had two attempts before he left Mr Heath to inherit an inflated and expensive ministry of Technology.
Then, when Mr Heath changed his policies. he put Mr Chataway, , in to become a booster of investment, adding him to the faint remaining outlines of the responsibilities of Mr Michael Noble, Mr Nicholas Ridley and Sir John Eden. All of these thanes . may well have been unavoidable', "Ent Mr Chataway freely admitted this week that one of the most perious problems he had in industrial diplomacy was persuading would-be investors that this time the Government really meant to stick with the new subventive policy enshrined in the Industry Act, because so many firms were so thoroughly fed up with all the changes of direction there had been since the war. It is not merely that no government in this country for the past twenty-five years has had, for long, a clear and consistent policy towards industry and the infrastructure of roads, ports and railways which support it, but also it is true that nobody has really thought long or consecutively about the ministerial structure such a policy needs to support it. And a huge department which deals with structures, and long term matters like investment and industrial development cannot — unlike, say, the Treasury — respond quickly to economic crisis because of the disruptive effect crisis response has on its clients; yet this is precisely what the DTI has had to do. If Mr Walker is going to sort things out he will need a great deal more than his gifts for man management. He will need a much more clearly philosophical and conceptual approach to the Government's industrial and trade policies than he has ever shown himself to be capable of, in any field.
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