POLICY COMMITTEE.
Thursday, 31st October 1940.
Paper by Lord Davidson.

I wish to submit for the consideration of my colleagues on the Policy Committee an idea which has been germinating in my mind ever since the Director General put forward his proposal for the publication and distribution by the Ministry of Information of a series of pamphlets dealing with postwar problems.

I am in complete agreement with the Director General's contention that it is of vital importance that the public mind should be kept occupied during the dreary winter months that lie ahead. The average man and woman is not the least bit interested in hypothetical Peace Aims as expressed in terms of Peace Treaties and International boundaries. We are a practical people. But we are deeply concerned with the future of our own country and the material conditions - expressed in terms of housing, employment, education, etc. - that will arise in the New Britain which must be built when Victory has been achieved. Now if Government Policies are to be built upon sound foundations the wider the public discussion of alternative solutions of each problem the better.

But it is essential that no Government Department, and still less no Cabinet Minister, should be committed to any particular solution or plan in advance.

My suggestion therefore is that as Housing, and Town Planning in its widest connotation (e.g. Industrial Planning included) holds first place in the public mind, the B.B.C. should start with a series of talks on Housing and Town Planning designed to stimulate interest and controversy amongst the members of the public, and should permit the protagonists whether bodies or individuals full rein to argue their particular case. Proprietors and editors of daily and weekly national and provincial newspapers should be encouraged to publish feature articles and stimulate correspondence.

To sum up, I put forward this idea because:-

(1) The public mind will be directed to the constructive 60 - 2 -planning of a better Britain after the war.

(2) The brighter the picture that emerges, the more terrible the alternative of defeat and slavery among the ruins will appear. thus strengthening the public determination to endure.

(3) The Government will not need to be deflected for one instant from the task of winning the war, nor be concerned in the interplay of public controversy. It will not be pledged in advance to any particular policy, but will be in a much better position to come to quick decisions when the time comes if a sound policy has emerged from free discussion.

(4) In time all the facets of the postwar problem of reconstruction - Social, Economic, Educational, etc. - can be brought into the light of public discussion and controversy which is the life blood of democracy now and after victory.

DAVIDSON.

30th October, 1940.