from Stan Mills
Editorial note: This item was sent before the announcement that Dr. Beeching had been made a life peer. That appointment mak@ the article all the more relevant. Moreover, one is struck by the fact that the Government seem to be going out of their way to antagonise the railmen, It is very difficult to work out what its motive can be. Putting Dr. Beeching in the House of Lords as a reward for his 'services!, following on the liner train decision andother moves, seems to. show an stonishing lack of tact. It would appear tha abot only did many people overrate Mr. Wilson as a socialist, even mor overrated him as an astute politician.
The June Ath Railway Review carried as a lead article the following comment on the departure of Dr, eeching:
"Indignant letters, exasperated expressions from men at the end of their patience, and angry disgust; these are the reactions of many railwaymen to the incredible spate of whitewashing nonsense that certain newspapers have splashed about on the departure of Dr. Beeching. One of the worst pieces ever written in that very bad newspaper, the Daily Express, appeared the other day. It was a leader headed "What one man can do." The unknowm knowall who disgraced the name of journalism by writing this leader began by alleging that Beeching's "Departure is bitterly regretted. In little more than four years he has transformed the service,"
‘Regretted by whom? How does he know his departure is regrettedy If this Express leader writer regrets his departure who the hell is he to regret anything? What we do know is that railwaymen andthe reilway unions will not regret his departure. They are sorry he ever came, In little over four years British Railways has been reduced, thousands of jobs have been lost, thousands more have been so depressed that they have left the industry in © disgust - 70,000 left last year, hundreds of thousands of passengers have been deprived of services, hundreds of firms have been denied freight facilities, depression has settled on the men at all levels, management at large has become jumpy, suspicious, defeatist, the staff atmosphere in. the B.R.B. headquarters is astonishing in its instability and tension, the unproductive element in the railways has been grossly inflated, and so on. Ask any active trade unionist what the morale of the staff is; what the state of the railway service is.
. ‘
"The Express leader writer - and he is not beet penpdt a! one - has decided that the Beeching regime was right and nothing wilt thee “not even the truth. The only official strike in the last forty odd years called by the N.U.R. was in this golden period...."