ABSTRACT
The above extract, written by Transport Minister Harold Watkinson in a confidential memorandum to the Cabinet, is an excellent illustration of policy at a watershed through a potent coupling of ideas, values and interests. Watkinson himself was a highly influential policy entrepreneur who, soon after arriving at the MoT in 1955, decided that roads and road traffic seemed to be the most urgent sector for his attention. For this Minister, the policy ‘solution’ was clear:
Punch published a full-page cartoon about this time entitled ‘Road Race’, showing the Minister desperately unrolling the Macadam carpet in front of a bevy of snarling motor cars. This expressed my feelings with considerable accuracy.
