Paradoxes Apparent In England

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 16, 6 November 1950, Page 7

Paradoxes Apparent In England

A number of paradoxes, some amusing and others awkward, are aparent in England at the present time. Many of them, of course, may be called the permanent paradoxes of English life, such as the rigid rules governing amateurism in sport which conflict rather oddly with the insistence that an amateur should captain an M.C.C. team largely comprised of professionals. There are others which are temporary and evauescent. For instance, a comparatively short time ago an atmosphere .of financial crisis hung as heavily as an autumnal fog over the British Isles; but the people as a whole were, in their private lives, apparently little affected by verbal and printed gloomy review; and many were even heard to comment that if a national financial crisis existed their private pockets were personally suited, thank you very much. At present the state of British, national finances seems to be less foggy. The pound sterling has improved in international standing and is actually being regarded as a good investment. Exports and the nation’s trade balance are referred to with some show of lightness' of heart, at the very least of tongue. Yet, while the state of the national finances is recovering the private exchequers of thousands of families are becoming increasingly strained. Prices are steadily rising in almost every direction. Other contrasts have been borne in on the public mind during recent weeks. For long enough now the Government has been urging, exhorting and otherwise encouraging the nation to work harder and to produce more; yet only the other day a father and son were in acute trouble with their union for working to.hard and earning too much. In post-war years the “management” of some industries has frequently been criticised by trade union leaders for being laggard in introducing up-to-date machinery to increase production. Yet there have been some cases where, when modern rfiachinery has been introduced, there has been a refusad to use it; or there has been an insistence that no labour should be displaced, making the cost of installing and running the new machinery prohibitive. The sceptre of unemployment which hung heavily over the ’thirties, and which was used with effect by the Labour Party to make the national flesh creep in the general election earlier this year, is now rather a thin wraith.