Both sides of industry welcomed last week's announcement by the Minister of Power that the Government is to write-off £400million of the National Coal Board's debt to the Exchequer. In practical terms, this is estimated to save the Board some £32millions a year in debt charges, The figure was much higher than that which had been predicted, and M.P.s were clearly surprised when Mr. Lee made the announcement. However, the move is not so "generous" as it may appear at first sight. The N.C.B. incurred its huge £927million debt to the Exchequer largely as a result of capital expenditure to meet an estimated annual production of 240,000,000 tons of coal a year. This latter figure was arrived at under Government influence. Nor was the figure purely a "mistake"; the Tories wanted to lessen Britain's dependence on oil in the protracted conflict with Egypt which led to the Suez crisis, Since then the miners and the general public have been paying for this policy.
However, the unexpectedly high figure has led to suspicions that the Government hopes to induce the N.C.B. and the workers to drop the idea of a 200,000,000 tons a year target. Indeed, Mr. Lee's statement in the Commons spoke of some further contraction in the demand for coal. When interviewed by the B.B.C., just after the announcement, he spoke of the need to more rapidly concentrate the industry in the more profitable areas such as Yorkshire and the East Midlands. A Financial Times article written the next day speculated that the Government was adopting a new fuel policy. It said that in all probability less and less will be heard of the 200,000,000 tons target, and that the pace of closing down of unprofitable pits can be expected to accelerate.
All of this amounts to a severe danger that the Government is going to adopt, in its entirety, the Tory policy in relation to the coal industry. Nothing in Mr. Lee's statement indicated that there was any criterion in judging the industry other than profitability. Whilst the Government was ready, in the interests of taking the pressure off the N.C.B., to write off ,faxpayers' money, the more important question of compensation payments was even mentioned. Even the argument about the relative cost of coal and oil for generating electricity is predetermined by these compensation payments. It is to be hoped that this week's conference of the National Union of Mineworkers will make it unmistakably clear that the miners will not accept Tory policies in their industry no matter who tries to introduce theme