py Ken Tarbuck
4n important article appeared in the Financial Times of Friday December 30th which was headed "New Fuel Policy Taking Shape". The article was speculative in tone, yet seems to have been based upon a real knowledge of the present situation and intentions of the Government. The article opened by saying "The Ministry of Power has now virtually completed the internal studies designed to form the basis of a new fuel policy. It will replace the one introduced in October 1965, which has since been rendered out of date by the North Sea natural gas discoveries and the economy's failure to reach the targets laid down in the National Plan". It goes on"... Although the Coal industry is already closing its unprofitable pits at the rate of about one a week, the industry's contraction will be carried much further than has hitherto -been publicly suggested."
The implications of this should be studied with great care by all those who are concerned, not only about.the fate and plight of the mining communities, but also of the fate of social ownership. The fuel policy of October 1965, it will be remembered, was a retreat from the previous pledge that the mining industry would have ea market of 200 million tons per year, the target had been revised to one of 170 million tons. In the face of angry protests on the part of the miners the Government stood firm in its policy of pit closures. Of course the people to benefit most from this were the oil companies.
Once again the same two sets of people will be affected: on the one side the mining communities and on the other the oil company shareholders. The oil companies which have been granted prospecting rights in the North Sea are now using the discoveries of natural gas to insict that once again the Government take the axe to the mining community.
It would scem that the Labour movement is to be gradually brainwashed into acceptance of the new cuts. The article continues - "The whole process will probably not be completed until the middle of the year, and even then the final documents will not be published. Nor will the industries concerned be shown the plan. They will be informed only of those sections that affect their activities. Parliament and the general public will have to rely on speeches by Mr. Richard Marsh... for their information. He intends'to make several, drawing on the details of the plan for his material." If the writer of the article is correct in his information, he is divulging a most scandalous and sinister situation. Nothing could be further from a socialist concept of planning; this secretive and bureaucratic manipulation is a travesty of how a fuel policy should be worked out.
The consequences for the mining industry, if this report is correct, will be catastrophic. If the industry was only planned to be producing the maxinum of 170 million tons after the present wave of closures, what will the production target be if a new wave is unleashed on the industry? The national plan forecast that "...the proportion of output, as well as the absolute amount, which is sold for electricity generation has been increasing, and is expected to go on increasing." Yet according to the information now this situation will be reversed. "The idea is that power stations should be made dual-firing, so that they can burn natural gas in the summer when the demand from other sectors is low, and then convert to oil in the winter". If such a policy is carried out it will be, not only a complete sell out to the
Coal Industry cont.
oil companies but also the certainty of death for the already contracted
South Wales and Scottish coal fields. This will mean the further break
up of communities, a further wasting of social capital in these areas,
and the jettisoning of a publicly owned industry in favour of the oil
oligopolists.
Already the effects of the present wave of rationalisation can be
seen on the mining industry. 1966 saw the lowest coal output in this
country for forty years, i.e. since 1926. Hardly a happy anniversary
for miners. Yet productivity per man shift rose from 108.3 cwts to
an average of 112.8 cwts in the same year. Hand in hand with fat
profits for the oil companies goes an intensification of exploitation
for the miners.