PRICES
The Long Haul
MR. George Brown is such an attractively ebullient character that he regards any chink of light as a major break-through. It would be churlish to deny to the First Secretary such com- fort as he can obtain from the first report of the National Board, for Prices and Incomes. The arithmetic is incomplete but seems to show re- commendations for 13 per cent increases to theet 9 per cent increases in costs. It all depends naturally in this sort of an argument where you start it from. For example, since the general election there-have been recommendations for increases of 71 per cent and costs have gone up by at least that amount. Mr. Aubrey Jones is much too deferential to the Government in his report. The truth is as Mr. Heath said in the House of Commons that 'costs still increase so long as the Government force them up by taxation in inflation.' Mr. Jones and his board will be expected to follow as tough a line with the nationalised industries in due course as he has thought right to do with the Road Haulage Association.
The main recommendation was that the practice of general rate recommendations by the Road Haulage Association is not in the interests of its customers or of the industry itself and should be abandoned. The board saw it as a consequence of this verdict that the advice given by the association to increase rates by 5 per cent to meet increased costs should be withdrawn, and that in any case the customers should not accept it. It is of course this last point that may prove a formid- able hostage for the future.
It is not at all clear who (if anybody) has won on the first point. The recommendation has not been withdrawn, but the practice of general re- commendations on future occasions presumably has been. The point may 'in any case be of lessi significance than it 'appears to be at first sight. The association represents only 17,500 out of 46,000 hauliers. It has no power of enforcement, nor does it wish to have. In any event, as the Government's original reference to the Board makes clear, 'recommended increases by the Road Haulage Association are ' not automatically adopted by their members, but road haulage rates continue to be subject, in the usual way, to negotiation with customers.' In turn this makes the interim arithmetic of the board even mote suspect.
The position remains that the customers who, like ICI, are strong will use their stength to resist.' Others will find it less easy. Nevertheless Mr.' George Brown's advice to 'shop around' is the very stuff of Tory economic policy, and his con version should be warmly applauded.
Two points remain. First, the issue of pro- viding the board with some 'teeth' will have to be solved if its pious resolutions are to mean very much. Second, it becomes urgent to reject' the Minister of Transport's recent doctrine that he does not believe in a policy of competition in the industry. The TUC, with what has become their typical habit of ludicrous 'overstatement, 'have * said that to implement the Geddes Report would lead to 'anarchy in the road haulage industry.° Mr. Brown and Lord Geddes are for 'competition, Mt. Fraser and the TUC against. Mr. Brown and Lord Geddes are of course right. But they will not win. Not under Socialism.
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