Do Mixed Marriages Work?

Thirty-four years after its finest hour, Britain has become one of the sick men of Europe. Its trade deficit is astronomical, and British politicians, who are no less lavish with campaign promises than others, no longer even promise to eliminate it; they campaign on promises to reduce it to a few billion.

The sea saved Britain from certain disaster in 1940, and the sea could save it from certain disaster again. If the British can hold on for only 6 more years and develop the rich oil fields recently discovered under the North Sea, they can be self-sufficient by 1980, they can export oil by 1983, and after that who knows, they might even ostentatiosly walk around in bedsheets.

But with the loot not yet in, the crazies are already dividing it. 'It's Scotland's oil, not Britain's," say the Scottish nationalists. "It belongs to all of the people," says the government, "and we are their elected representatives." "Shut up," say the Trade Unions, "you don't rule the country; we do."

Political parties in Britain are ultimately divided by the same deep philosophical differences as in America, (one party is in. the other is out). and bv the same incompatible high principles (the ins want to stay, the outs want in). But they stand united on one point: No profits for the oil vampires For in England or America, kicking free enterprise now helps both ins and outs; the bigger kicker wins. So they try to outkick each other with all the familiar proposals from excess profit taxes to post-officizing the oil companies. In all this kicking confusion, the Labour government has a firm policy: "Nobody outkicks us."

Meanwhile, the oil is lying where it has lain for millions of years, under the bottom of the North Sea. To explore, develop and transport it, you need not politicians or bureaucrats, but oilmen. And oilmen are thinking twice before they sink billions into a future where everything but the kicks is uncertain. Will the government let the oilmen do the job for a fair reward? Will they let them do the job and confiscate their property when it is done? Or will they outright sink the lifeboat that appeared, like a godsend, at five minutes to twelve?

To stay in, the British government needs both the crazies and the oil an insoluble problem. So they will probably do like any other government in their situation: Choose none of the alternatives and yet all of them, that is, muddle along in a perpetual crisis. The issue of government control versus free enterprise is much the same in Britain and America; Britain is just further into the swamp of the welfare state.

But there is a deeper issue here: Can you make a permanent mixed marriage between economic socialism and political democracy?

Watch Britain.