SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

J. W. M. THOMPSON

One must beware of growing cynical about society's fumbling attempts to 'plan' the helter- skelter changes which are happening to the environment. A brilliant solution to the prob- lem of London's third airport was proposed this week, involving the creation of an artificial island off the Essex coast. Perfectly practical, and not absurdly expensive, thanks to Dutch experience in this kind of land reclamation. But there is the looming infamy of Stansted, which seems to bear all the marks of an in- escapable government commitment. One's first reaction, therefore, is that nothing so en- lightened and truly progressive stands any hope whatever of being adopted, that we're stuck, as we usually seem to be in these planning matters, with the short-term expedient rather than the grand escape into a new dimension.

And yet . . As I say, one must not despair. The word from Whitehall is that even now an eleventh-hour reappraisal of the whole Stansted blunder is in progress. Ministers have been shaken and disturbed by the unanimity with which the plan has been denounced (and re- sisted). I'm not saying that the artificial-island plan will carry the day, or indeed that any of the other possible alternatives to Stansted will be adopted: the entrenched bureaucratic defenders of that dreadful plan are a formid- able force. But, at least, the story is not yet ended. It may be that the significance. in this connection, of Mr Douglas Jay's dismissal from the Board of Trade has been underestimated. One doesn't have to be particularly astute to see the attractions for- the Government of sub- stituting a modern and popular airport plan for the old-fashioned and hated one of simply gobbling up London's last remaining rural hinterland. And Mr Jay is available as a scapegoat.

Museum piece

If I were a minister I would only become in- volved with these major planning decisions with many forebodings. A sort of doom. hangs over them. Mr Patrick Gordon Walker has now lost any particles of goodwill left to him after Enfield as a result of the British Museum fiasco. He must wonder why fate clobbers him se mercilessly; perhaps he would find part of the recent explanation if he looked critically at those who advise him at the Department of Education. Ministers, especially new ones, seldom show such hamfisted arrogance unless their bureaucratic mentors encourage them in it. Some unpleasant spirit of contempt for con- stitutional proprieties seems to lurk in this ministry, and its presence would explain how Mr Gordon Walker came to treat the Museum trustees in a way which is quite simply indefen- sible.

On the rights and wrongs of the actual de- cision to scrap the British Museum's library building plans, I believe the Government's critics are wrong to lay much stress on the vaiue of having the library contiguous to the other collections. What is essential is that it should have a site in the heart of London, and not be foolishly planted outside as though it were a factory (or the Royal Mint) intended to benefit a needy area. Why not Covent Garden?

I sympathise with those who wish to pre- serve the present rather seedy jumble of shops

and flats on the site Mr Gordon Walker has vetoed. It has a metropolitan-village charm, with its foodshops and bookshops and that famous establishment (famous in my family, at least) selling ready-made magic for youth- ful conjurors. I wonder, though, if the Museum has to sell off the site, how long it will survive the developers. One great merit of the re- jected plan was that it made provision for a guarder containing, but in modern idiom, much the same happy jumble of smallish shops and eating-places.

Race law

When I wrote here a few weeks ago of the undesirability of introducing state regulation of

etprivate house sales in the hope of eliminating racial discrimination, I was mildly chided for unintentionally giving support to the dis- criminators. I certainly don't accept the charge, and I am interested to see from the massive Street report, proposing a major extension of anti-discrimination law, that this expert com- mittee found itself unable to agree on one issue only—this very question of whether house sales by individual owner-occupiers should be regulated. They balanced the advantages of ,regulation against the disadvantages of a powerful intrusion into a citizen's private financial and domestic arrangenients. and in the end had to agree to differ. On all other points, they make far-reaching and unanimous proposals which will, no doubt, form the basis of this session's promised legislation. Rightly, t, they reckoned that it was up to Parliament to make up its mind whether or not to push the state's finger further into the pie of private housing deals: and one may hope, for what it's worth, that Parliament will say no.

Competition

After a lapse of some years the SPECTATOR Weekly Competition reappears on page 556. This latest step in the agreeable process of ex- panding the SPECTATOR Will, WC hope, please those who used to enjoy exercising their wits in this way ando also more recent newcomers among our readers. The form of this week's competition. the Word Game, provides great scope for ingenious logodaedaly, a pastime which seems well suited to the talents of this journal's readers. My. colleague Auberon o Waugh, who his done a certain amount of re- , search in the field with this form of competition, reports encouraging results. Next week we'll in- troduce a competition which will offer an outlet to readers' gifts in the field of verse, for the same prizes; and thereafter the two competitions will

. alternate,' with such variations as seem appro- priate from time to time.

Short-term speech

As a literary form the Queen's Speech ought to receive more attention than it gets. In Mr Wilson's hands, at least, ceg.iin themes recur, with the inevitability of homeric epithets, won- derfully unaffected by the turbulent world out- side the Palace of Westminster. Consider these quotations from the last' four: 'My Government's first concern will be .w maintain the strength of sterling by dealing with the short-term (sic) balance of payments difll- culties . . (1964) 'They will give priority to ensuring that balance in external payments is restored next year and that the strength of sterling is main- tained.' (1965.)

'A prime aim of My Government's policy will be to restore equilibrium in the external balance of payments.' (1966.)

The principal aim of My Government's policy is the. achievement of a strong economy. This should combine a continuing (sic) surplus

on the balance of payments. . . with full em- ployment.' (1967.) I wouldn't suggest, though, that these Speeches are actually making no contribution at all to the nation's financial wellbeing. They have, in fact, brought in a steadily increasing revenue by the good old commercial tactic of pushing up the price of a printed copy : fivepence in 1964, sixpence in 1965, sixpence again in 1966, and now up to eightpence in 1967. That isn't bad: a 60 per cent price rise in three years, and not a cheep out of Mr Aubrey Jones.