President Wilcox Calls for Consumer Cabinet Post
Baroness Wilcox slams the Government for
burying consumer representation inside dti.

Lady Wilcox, having been re-elected President of NfCG, received an enthusiastic reception when she addressed the Annual Meeting in September. She felt that the views and aspirations of consumers were hardly heeded by Government. She recalled the heady days, 25 years ago, when Shirley Williams, as Minister of Consumer Affairs, had a seat in the Cabinet and set up the National Consumer Council. Nowadays we have a Consumer Minister, but he is a junior Minister within the Department of Trade and Industry and can only interest himself with matters appertaining to the DTI. Consumer issues are far wider than this, and much more important and deserve an independent Ministerial appointment.

She paid tribute to retiring Chairman, Bob Gale, who had steered the Federation through difficult times with loss of half our funding when Consumers' Association pulled out. Some had felt that there was little point in continuing when that happened, but Bob rallied everyone behind him in a concerted effort to carry on and even improve the Federation. The fact that we are still here at all is a tribute, but that we are still highly effective, keen and enthusiastic is even more so.

There was some surprise when Lady Wilcox told the meeting that she thought there was work for the Federation to do in Russia. What she had in mind was education, under the EU "Know How" fund and initiative, in dealing with consumer affairs. It was a concept little understood in Russia and our help and advice would be of considerable assistance.

NfCG is a small organisation and individual Groups do not add up to a huge number of consumers, nevertheless we have an influence out of proportion to our size and, while every endeavour may seem, in isolation, just a drop in the ocean, it all adds up.

John Brown

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