Notebook
from newspaper reports over the country during the General Election campaign, a reader gained the very distinct impression that London and the Midlands were islands of prosperity in a sea of underdeveloped areas. Lancashire was depressed about cotton. Gloucestershire was dubious about aircraft. Tyneside, South Wales and Scotland were made to sound like Calabria. Most of our basic industries seemed either to be in a bad way, or if they were undeniably prosperous, They Were in the Wrong Area.
Now that (in practice at any rate) the Government appears to take the view that Tory Freedom by itself does not work (it is Labour that is still talking about “prosperity”!), it has been forced to intervene—and frequently to subsidise—most of the important sectors in the ‘private’ sector of the economy: even those so far untouched do not seem likely to have to wait long: from preliminary noises, it appears that shipbuilding and machine tools (both undeniably important and manifestly incompetently run) are next in the queue.