Steel The calculations have been made to the point of
tedium. Desmond and Woodrow, Woodrow and Desinond,,keep appearing and disappearing until their faces blur into one composite amiable Cheshire cat. Mr. Mikardo injects an honest note of farce into the proceedings. And yet the issue is of true national—not just political—impor- tance. It is proposed for the first time to take a great manufacturing industry under state control. The White Paper has had a blistering bad press. Indeed it makes no serious attempt to argue a case for nationalisation, It simply asserts that under public control all will be well. The truth is. of course, that the Labour Party are stuck with this silly proposal and propose to unload their troubles on to the industry. So the result of the debate in the end was hanging on three things. On how those Labour members who know this to be a ludicrous proposal decided to vote. On the fact that Hall Green did not declare its result until Thursday night. Above all on whether those on each side who are seriously ill could somehow be transported to the Palace of Westminster. Not perhaps the best advertisement for parliamentary democracy.
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