Pallid Plan

Like Gilbert and Sullivan's policemen in The Pirates of Penzance, chorusing their intention to attack but loath to do so, Britain's leaders have been demanding an end to the limp management and wasteful labor practices that make the British economy creak. Results to date: roughly zero. Last week the Labor government released its long-expected five-year economic plan, which was designed to give British industry and labor a goal to aim at--and a bit of a kick in that direction. Drawn up by Economics Minister George Brown and in preparation for eleven months, the 494-page plan marshals impressive statistics, recites almost every known flaw in the industrial machine and insists that Britain speed up the growth of its economy to achieve a 25% gain in national output by 1970.

There is just one trouble. The plan offers barely a hint of how all this can be done.

Severe Blow. For one thing, the plan's success depends on shifting 600,000 workers from agriculture, mining, transport, aircraft, textiles and footwear into such growing fields as education, engineering, construction, public and other services. Even in the unlikely event that so many workers could be peace fully persuaded to shift jobs, the planners foresee a manpower shortage of 200,000 workers. To overcome that, they ask tradition-bound labor and industry to team up to boost the country's growth in output per man from its present 3% to 3.4% a year.

The plan speaks rather vaguely of a need to restudy industry's incentive to modernize, but otherwise is silent about how such productivity gains can be managed. In fact, the plan's architects admit that the economic slowdown the government is now trying to bring about in order to preserve the value of the pound will deal their growth timetable a severe blow this year. Though insisting that sharp limits be maintained on outlays for defense and foreign aid, the planners call for a 29% expansion of government civil spending by 1970, including boosts of up to 41% for roads, public housing, health, welfare and other social benefits.

Gloomy Figures. British businessmen scoffed. "We have doubts and suspicions," growled the powerful Confederation of British Industry. "A pallid pill," said the Institute of Directors. "The missing ingredient is incentive." Wrote the Economist: "The plan talks of growth and great social reform, but it dare not set down the proposals to achieve them, not with all those foreign bankers looking on. What Labor has got now is responsibility without power, the prerogative of the cuckold down the ages." When Brown went on television to defend the plan, the Tories demanded (and got) equal time to reply.

Britain had little to cheer about, either, in the battle to overcome its unfavorable trade balance, the source of the pressure on the pound. Figures announced last week showed that the deficit climbed from $140 million in July to $263 million in August. Whatever their other disagreements, both the framers of the new economic plan and its critics seemed to agree about one thing: increasing austerity remains in order for Britain.

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