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"This Little Bill." Next day the Socialist Government introduced a bill, innocuously titled "Supplies and Services (Transitional Powers) Bill," which was supposed to empower Attlee to take what ever steps he thought were necessary. Churchill quickly denounced it as "a blank check for totalitarian government." One catch-all clause would practically transfer Parliament's powers to the Cabinet: the bill "provides for ... assuring generally that the whole resources of the community are available for use and are used in the manner best calculated to serve the interests of the community."
Tory and Liberal charges that this gave the Socialists blanket power to speed up Socialism stung Herbert Morrison into a remarkable admission that he and his planning colleagues had been caught with their plans down. "We have no preconceived notions as to precisely how we propose to utilize it when we are given this power." Morrison referred to "this little bill" (it had less than 200 words) as if to ask what all the fuss was about.
"The First Step." But critics were not reassured when Richard Grossman, leader of the "Keep Left" Laborite rebels, said: "This bill symbolizes today the end of all those delusions that have been growing up on the other [Tory] side that finally the time would come when this Government would turn back from their Socialist path."
After Attlee's speech, Grossman had rallied Labor M.P.s to sign a pledge to nationalize the steel industry this year. He feared that Attlee's omission of any mention of steel was significant. The Cabinet was already split on the issue. Chancellor of the Exchequer Hugh Dalton, opposed to nationalization this year, was locked in combat with dogged Health Minister Aneurin Bevan, leader of Labor's left wing. Bevan and Grossman regarded steel nationalization as the heart of the Socialist program. Three hundred M.P.s (from a total membership of 640, including 393 Laborites) signed the Bevan-Crossman pledge. But at a quiet meeting of Labor M.P.s, where Bevan gave no hint of attempting a revolt, Attlee won reluctant acceptance of his decision not to disturb the vital steel industry for the time being.
Laborites and Tories alike were more sympathetic with another favorite Crossman peeve, against Britain's dependence on the U.S. Even ministers who clearly saw that Britain was irrevocably tied to the U.S. declared the nation's defiant hope for independence. The surprise 75% tax on U.S. movie earnings (see BUSINESS) was one symptom of a common complaint. Said Hugh Dalton, of the Government's plan for stepping up production and cutting dollar spending: "This will be ... the first step towards our keeping control of our own national destiny and becoming the pawns of no man, our national destiny as an independent people, friendly to all but dependent upon none."