Durham Delays
The Durham County Council has only itself to blame if its peculiar ideas about local government are now receiving more attention than they have ever attracted in the past. The principle of enforcing the closed shop for professional workers has quite rightly been denounced by the Ministers involved as well as by the professional workers themselves ; the issue is dead, but its burial is taking an indecently long time. Partly from a sense of injured pride and partly from a hope that something in their favour may turn up, the Labour majority on the Council are exploiting to the full their not inconsiderable powers of pro- crastination. First, they called upon the Labour organisations in the county to give them their backing for the closed shop principle. These organisations failed to produce the support expected of them, but, all the same, consulting them wasted a useful week or so. Now another delaying tactic has been resorted to. The Minister of Education is being asked to receive a delegation from the Council. There is, of course, nothing new that the delegation could tell the Minister, but, if the Minister a7reed to receive it, the necessity for giving him the " immediate assurance " on stopping asking teachers about their union membership would be postponed. In the long run, the Council doubtless believes, public interest in Durham methods will wane and the professional workers, having made their gesture, will be prepared to take the line of least resistance. This is a pernicious belief. It is now time for the Minister of Education to act as spokesman for the public indignation, and to insist on receiving the assurance he has asked for.
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