ABSTRACT
The search for workable principles of delimitation, which will permit adequate public control to be combined with a sufficient degree of commercial flexibility, has been in progress ever since the passage of the first post-war nationalization act. The crucial minister-board relationship, however, as the select committee has repeatedly emphasized, remains unsatisfactory, with the result that members of parliament are still, from time to time, frustrated in their attempts to assign responsibility for the alleged errors of commission and omission. Moreover, the actual relationship that develops depends on factors which cannot be brought within the compass of clear-cut principles. So much depends on the general political situation, on the current performance of the industry concerned, on the political sensitivity of its operations, and-most of all-on the qualities and qualifications possessed by those two key personalities, the minister and the board chairman.
