Everyone must hope that Mr Wilson’s attempt to introduce a wages and prices freeze will succeed – even those who believe that the attempt should never have been made.
But the pedigree of the Government’s, policy is suspect: it is by haste out of desperation. And it has been introduced in the most unfavourable circumstances imaginable: in an atmosphere of confusion and bitterness.
Even so, there is no reason to doubt the Government’s ability to sustain its policy for a limited period... the real doubts about the wisdom of the freeze go deeper. In the first place, it is extremely dubious whether this short-term expedient will serve the long-term needs of the economy. In the second, the imposition of a compulsory wages and prices freeze – the first in our history – may endanger the whole experiment of running a mixed economy which is neither wholly planned nor wholly dependent on market forces.
The Government has to persuade the nation that what it is doing makes sense... in particular managements and trade unions need to be convinced that what they are required to do conforms to some overall aims to which they themselves subscribe. If they come to think that they are being subjected to arbitrary whims and expedients, their co-operation is likely to be grudging.
Key quote
“It was a damned fine victory. We have not had much to boast about since Harold Wilson came to power.”
Unnamed City worker just after England won the World Cup
Talking point
A campaign to draw attention to one of Britain’s major social problems - that of families with below average incomes and an above average number of children - begins when Tony Lynes starts work as the first full-time secretary of the Child Poverty Action Group.
Observer news story
