The industry of Plowden Available to Purchase

THE predominant feature of the comment on the Plowden report is one of disappointment that the committee of inquiry, after a year‐long probe into the industry, failed to provide a solid basis on which decisions essential to its welfare could be made. Lord Plowden and his committee took a gloomy view of the future prospects of the industry, as they did indeed of its present and past history. The recommendation of a State shareholding in, and a bias towards a merger of the main airframe groups, provides a convenient cloak to hide the lack of any real conclusion on which decisions could be taken to provide a stable policy for the future. There were three main fields to explore: the size of the potential market, the complex relations between industry and Government, and the way the industry is run. The first was examined in detail, the second explored at some length, and the third largely ignored. But most of the report's conclusions and recommendations were based on the comparative size of future markets.