[Among the more beneficial effects of the drivers'…]

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Among the more beneficial effects of the drivers' strike has been the halting of paper supplies to some of the national press.

The Daily Mail, Mirror, Express and Sun were among those last week forced to contain their angry wailings within thin covers after they ran short of newsprint.

Editorials in many of the papers have been the verbal equivalent of the panic buying which gripped the petty bourgeoisie as soon as the strike started. Hysteria has been the key note of the day.

The Star-the latest and possibly the shoddiest addition to the capitalist poison sheets-was in little doubt. Over a front page story full of dubious speculation it placed the unequivocal headline 'Send in the Troops'.

Perhaps by chance and perhaps not this clarion call shared the front page with a picture of Prince Andrew carrying a double barrelled shotgun. He was-on this occasion-only murdering pheasants.

The Daily Express best expressed the hysterical mood on "the lorry men's strike that is hitting every person in Britain" under the headline 'Has everyone gone mad?' Of Moss Evans the Express wanted to know "what the hell is he doing about exercising some control over his men?"

Rising to a crescendo through a phony appeal over pensioners "struggling in the snow seeking the means of keeping body and soul together" the Express builds to its apocalyptic conclusion.

"The awful question is: Can this country any longer governed sensibly? Clearly Mr. Moss Evans and other union leaders destined for the House of Lords have no control over members who run wild...

"The answer, of course, is that some day, somehow, someone has got to cry halt to the ruthless strike