A Spectator's Notebook

The past week has contained the kernel of great change. Support for Mrs Thatcher has begun to crystallise and Mr Wilson has announced the preliminary conditions of the referendum which, on present expectations, should lead to Britain's withdrawal from the EEC.

There will be some who will lose all confidence and be afflicted with doubt in face of what should be to our national economic advantage. Harold Nicolson, in his 'Marginal Comments' in The Spectator in 1948, when comparing that situation with the situation that existed after the Napoleonic wars, made some apposite remarks:

"... It forces us to abandon our old European way of thinking and to envisage the situation in far wider proportions. It obliges us to alter our geography. It compels us to face the fact that the balance of power has ceased to be continental and become hemispheric; that we cannot even begin to assess our present Position unless we first discard all the old Eurdpean habits of thought, and think in the proportions of world power. . Only when we have extended our imaginations to such wider limits can we hope to assess the potentialities of our own Commonwealth or the decisive importance of the United States. If for one moment we allow our thoughts to dribble along the old cart tracks of Europe we shall lose all confidence; if we think in wider circles there is no cause to feel dismayed. Again and again have the countries of the world decided that we have ceased to be a great power. Again and again has our prestige been flung to the winds only to be brought back to us. Again and again has the resilience and ingenuity of our race been able to achieve triumph through misfortune. Our congenital optimism, which seems to foreigners an irritating symptom of our frivolous lethargy, is something much more than an evasion of reality; it is, an instinctive and irrational faith."

The simple life

In a week that produced Peter Hall's film, Akenfield (what, by the way, were the first world war villagers in uniform doing wearing their caps in church?), I saw on a Closed cquit television screen in the House of Commons on Friday what was presumably a Private Member's Bill — the Farriers' Bill. Amid all our troubles, injustices to blacksmiths, or is It the horses, still get Parliamentary time.

Pressure groups

It used, to be said — usually behind people's hands in Westminster and Whitehall, but now more openly — that the European Movement does not get the major part of its funds from small private donations, or even from British business, but in a roundabout way gets secret contributions from Brussels and the chancellories of Europe. Since the British political Parties are reported to be cutting back on their headquarters staffs and having economy drives, and even the Conservatives are having difficulties in raising money from indUstrial sources, it is certainly surprising that the European Movement is so flush with funds. There appear to be grounds for a detailed inquiry and possibly the need for a statutory return of the sources of funds reaching the organisation, and indeed, also, of the predominantly British-raised monies reaching the various anti-Market movements. At the moment it looks as if the European Movement is becoming a redoubt for former diplomats and business executives accustomed to the well-paid support of a large staff and grand offices. While the defenders of our independence occupy humble rooms and rely on the distribution of simple, cyclostyled leaflets by voluntary workers at public meetings, it is noticeable that the European Movement easily affords lavish publicity and all-expenses-paid junketings.

Big deals

Part of the price Burmah Oil have paid for,their near-collapse is suffering the humiliation of having to sell their shares in British Petroleum for £175 million and then to see them rise £50 million within a day or so. The shares were bought by the Bank of England,which offered to share with Burmah any profits they took, but the Treasury, properly concerned with the country's interests, refused and the shares were bought outright.

Great financial transactions conducted in the interest of the country have become part of the folklore of our times. Every schoolboy is told of Disraeli's midnight call on Rothschild for £4 million in gold to buy the controlling stake in the Suez Canal. Again, the story of Churchill's purchase on behalf of the Admiralty of a controlling interest in BP to ensure an oil supply for the Royal Navy, has become an example of that combination of dash and the man of public affairs that appeals to the spirit of the merchant venturer we all feel we have in us.

However, the greatest financial stroke on the public's behalin modern times,was when Hugh Dalton, as one of the most effective . though least impressive Chancellors in recent history, floated £5 billion of nationalisation debt at 3 per cent or less, and even then got a premium.

The fact that there are some poor suckers still left with their original stock does not detract from the merit of his achievement. The stock has since suffered terribly; not because of Dalton but because of all the foolish people that came along afterwards with their 'dear money' schemes.

Meals on wheels

Following my brief mention last week of the rising price and eroding quality of a British Rail breakfast, I have now to say, in regard to the latter, that the back bacon returned to my BR breakfast this week. On the other hand, the price has gone up again: the meal now costs £1.40, as against the 80p of two years or so ago, an increase of 75 per cent.

Lobby lyrics -12

The noble lord, Lord Garrulous, Would always start his speeches thus: "I'll only keep your Lordships for Five minutes, or a little more."

And then, with never flagging powers, He'd speak, or so it seemed, for hours. Last night, upon a certain Bill, He said, "I hope your Lordships will, This time, forgive me if I don't Be quite as brief as is my wont" — At this, their Lordships rose and fled, Save those who were asleep or dead,_ And left Lord Garrulous to bore The solitary Lord Chancellor.

(Weep not for him, nor be dismayed, For Chancellors are amply paid;) And I would be prepared to bet His Lordship may be speaking yet. Ogilvy Lane