Chapter 1318 Testing the Prime Minister
Harold Wilson was very satisfied with this report and recognized the capabilities of the Cabinet Office. On the contrary, the Water Resources Act he promoted was still in the drafting stage.
He kept the report and planned to use some of the contents in the report to supplement his legislative draft.
Overseas civil servants from Malaya and the Middle East returned to London in the days that followed as the Prime Minister introduced legislation and the Cabinet Secretary set up the institutions to make his grand plans a reality. As an important part of the cornerstone of the civilization of the British Empire, local civil servants and overseas civil servants should learn from each other's strengths.
After meeting with civil servants who had returned from the two places, Alan Wilson set about establishing two agencies to promote the nationalization of the water supply system this time. One was the establishment of the River Bureau. Responsible for the distribution of rivers in the UK, a total of 29 river management agencies, namely river bureaus, will be established. These 29 river bureaus are responsible for carrying out activities related to water resources, river pollution, land drainage, fisheries and water recreation in the country. Relevant laws, this is also the beginning of watershed management in the UK.
The basic principles of watershed management come from the concept of a river as an organic system, characterized by physical connections and interdependencies that translate into economic connections; managing wastewater treatment and water abstraction sites and operations by the same agency minimizes costs and maximizes efficiency .
A Water Resources Commission will be established in addition to the River Board. The Water Resources Commission is a national body whose purpose is to advise government and river authorities on water conservation issues nationwide.
The Commission promotes inter-regional collaboration on water services to meet the needs of each authority's region, by promoting regulated reservoirs to increase river flows during periods when river flows are otherwise low.
However, the Water Resources Commission does not have any administrative power. It is simply a civil servant providing a new place to work for local government water supply agencies.
After all, Whitehall cannot fire all civil servants in more than 1,400 agencies. This also involves the happiness of many families.
There is nothing Alan Wilson can do about this. In fact, if you know a little bit about Britain, you will know that the proportion of British civil servants is not the highest in the world, but it is pretty much it. But when it comes to civil service expenditures occupying the country's financial expenditures, we in Great Britain have never targeted anyone. We have been number one in the world for a long time. If nothing else happens, we can maintain this advantage into the 21st century.
After settling the matter of establishing two institutions, Alan Wilson picked up the phone and said, "Let the deputy secretary-general come to my place."
Burke Trend originally hoped to be promoted to the supreme authority, but in the end he failed. Alan Wilson could not be regarded as a cut-off. He even expected Burke Trend to continue to maintain the cornerstone of the British Empire. This time the Prime Minister The establishment of the Water Resources Commission, which advocated nationalization, was ready to be handed over to Burke Trend.
As a matter of conscience, Alan Wilson has absolutely no intention of pushing Burke Trend out of the way, but he is very fond of Burke Trend's ability.
But maybe Burke Trend didn't think so, but his face was full of whether you were seeking revenge, "Everyone knows that this nationalized water supply system involves 29 rivers and 1,400 rivers. There are many local governments, water companies and institutions. If steel and coal were nationalized, we would not have to deal with so many institutions. After all, coal mines and iron mines are not widely distributed, and they can only deal with a few coal-producing areas and Just workers in the iron ore areas.”
"That's why we must first promote the nationalization of the water supply system. I hope the Prime Minister realizes the difficulty of nationalization. And having said that, it is only a matter of time to establish a unified national integrated water supply system. You also know this in your heart." Alan Wilson is not salty. Don't hesitate to speak. What if the Labor Party realizes that it is difficult to handle and puts the nationalization of coal and iron on hold? Although this hope is not great.
This is definitely a good thing, otherwise Alan Wilson would not agree with it. More than a thousand institutions are in charge of their own affairs. The water supply is okay, but the most important thing is that water pollution has been pushed forward and no one is willing to take responsibility.
The lack of attention to sewage treatment has led to a lack of investment in sewage treatment by many local governments.
And the lack of reward and punishment mechanism makes the government lack the motivation to improve the quality of sewage treatment.
The rivers in Britain are not clean these days. After much reflection, they cannot be compared with the Ganges, but they have nothing to do with the environmental protection concepts of later generations.
"This will increase the authority of Whitehall, my deputy secretary-general. Doesn't increasing the authority of Whitehall increase your authority?" Alan Wilson asked as if his colleagues were judging whether you are reliable. "I believe it. "Colleagues in Whitehall are keen to see this succeed, especially under your leadership."
At any rate, Burke Trend agreed in the end. In fact, if Alan Wilson hadn't been there, Burke Trend wouldn't have been able to avoid this matter. Without Alan Wilson, Burke Trend would be the Cabinet Secretary. He would still have to worry about the nationalization of today's water supply system, and there is no way to hide from it.
But now, Burke Trend, the leader who pushed for the nationalization of the water supply system, was staffed by people whom Alan Wilson called back from the Middle East and Malaya.
This may make Burke Trend feel a little uncomfortable, but Alan Wilson is not trying to exclude Burke Trend, saying that I will take the credit and you will take the responsibility, but it is really because of the Middle East I have done this kind of work with people in Malaya. They teach students according to their aptitude and have absolutely no selfish motives.
After Burke Trend left, Alan Wilson was thinking about the candidate for the permanent undersecretary of the Department of the Interior. Before he finished thinking, Magins came to report on the Department of Defense.
"How is your minister?" Alan Wilson greeted the new British defense chief as usual, without making any mistakes.
"I feel like the Secretary of Defense still wants to control military spending." Maggins mentioned Defense Secretary Dennis Healey, who has a negative attitude towards some military projects.
"I remember Denis Healey is a conservative in the Labor Party." Alan Wilson muttered. That's right, he is a conservative in the Labor Party. There are many factions within the Labor Party. Especially when he is in opposition, the contradictions are still very prominent. After Gaeske's death, Harold Wilson integrated and reunited.
The Labor Party was mired in factional strife after it fell from power. Although Healey was friends and supporters of the then party leader Xiaozhi Gaeske, when Gaeske passed away suddenly, Healey was in the first and second positions successively. In the second round of the party leadership vote, the vote went to Callaghan and Wilson. Healey once believed that George Brown, another popular candidate for party leadership, was moody. On the contrary, he believed that Wilson could unite the Labor Party and lead the Labor Party to victory in the next general election, so he supported Wilson in the party leadership election.
"The key to reducing military spending lies with the Prime Minister. We put the main work on the Prime Minister." After thinking for a long time, Alan Wilson said, "Isn't the work of the Ministry of National Defense very idle?"
It makes sense for him to say so. Since the ground war in the Vietnam War began, the Ministry of National Defense has become a key base. Although Britain did not participate in the war, the generals of the Ministry of Defense have been making suggestions as if they were serving the United States. Alan Wilson understood the generals' belligerence.
Bullying third world countries will stimulate Britain's warlike genes. If you ask these generals to formulate a plan to fight the Soviet Union, they will definitely become pacifists.
Naturally, British public opinion mainly reported positively on the U.S. actions in Vietnam. Only Alan Wilson secretly ordered Richard to dig up dirt on the U.S. military in Vietnam.
In terms of public opinion, the United States will win either today or tomorrow. If you don't know the British newspapers, you will see that the reports are more confident than the Americans' own reports.
After all, it was the United States that sent troops. Is it wrong for Britain to praise the United States’ combat effectiveness? The battlefield of public opinion is also important. Alan Wilson still remembers that during the Syrian Civil War, there were countless unknown creatures happily waiting for Damascus to fall and Assad to be hanged.
At that time, Assad was indeed very dangerous. Only Damascus was still in his hands, and most of the territory had been captured by the opposition. It seemed that it was only a matter of time before he followed in the footsteps of Colonel Khalifa. Isn’t this crazier than the UK now supporting the US in public opinion?
The war ultimately depends on the outcome. The crazy public opinion has ended with Russia helping Syria fight back. As for Ukraine's public opinion victory, it is just a reenactment of a classic.
Seeing that the supreme authority was very interested in the Vietnam War, Makins revealed the Ministry of Defense’s discussion on the Vietnam War, “Many generals are very pessimistic about China and the Soviet Union jointly supporting Vietnam. Before, we thought that a rift had appeared between the two countries, but now It seems like it’s not a big problem.”
"Oh, it's similar to the American assessment." Alan Wilson replied absently. To say that China and the Soviet Union, or China and Russia in later generations, are intimate is definitely nonsense. They have different nationalities and different cultural cores. How can they be intimate? But these two The country must be together.
To put it bluntly, there is no choice. All developed countries will follow the United States. Will the vested interests of globalization just follow the mud-legged activities?
Developed countries are the beneficiaries of this order. Why should we believe that the order you establish will be better than the current one?
Developed countries have all followed the United States, so naturally only two unlucky ones are left to join forces to keep warm. This is actually no solution for the two neighboring countries who once had enmity.
If one of these two falls, the next one will definitely not survive for long. The United States did not win the Cold War completely, which led to constant trouble later. He will not fall into the same pit twice. As long as one of the two enemies is eliminated, the next one will be counted down. Hiding is Can't escape.
"I should find an opportunity to find out the Prime Minister's attitude towards military spending. The former Prime Minister's mediation of the India-Pakistan war can be used as an entry point." Alan Wilson asked Makins, "What do you think of this entry point?"