CONFIDENTIAL
Social Programmes.
5.
14.
These long term programmes in Housing, Education, Social Welfare and Medical and Health Services announced in 1972 and '73 are gathering way nicely. They continue to receive a lot of public attention and I think have helped the attitude of the population to the Government, though of course at the price of heightened expectation. But they will take some time to have much impact on the ground.
15.
We have followed a policy of submitting the official plans to scrutiny and amendment by mixed boards under Unofficial chairmanship, and submitting the Boards' reports, in the form of green papers", to wide public debate, stimulated through Government Information Services. This is to maintain interest during the planning period and until the progress of the programmes can become self-evident, and partly because in this apparently autocratic form of Government it is a way of achieving public participation and consent. It is immensely time-consuming, but I believe worthwhile.
16.
so.
We will press on with these programmes in 1974 and much depends on our doing
However, they were adopted and programmed on the assumption of a stable tax structure and a 7% growth rate of the economy in real terms. The oil crisis might call this in question. I think we can hold our course in 1974, but should a recession be precipitated, the timing, if not the principles, of these programmes may have to be reconsidered.
Crime.
17.
The rapid increase in violent crime over the last three or four years had frightened the population to a point at which their faith in the Government was seriously under-mined. The problem was compounded by an extraordinary lack of confidence and communication between the public
CONFIDENTIAL
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