Orders of the Day — Agriculture

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 29 June 1964.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mr Robin Turton Mr Robin Turton , Thirsk and Malton 12:00, 29 June 1964

I should like, on behalf of the whole House, to offer my congratulations to the hon. Member for Faversham (Mr. Boston). He made a clear and engaging speech and I thought that he well fulfilled our tradition of avoiding controversy. We all remember with affection his predecessor, Mr. Percy Wells, and the way in which he looked after his constituency. I thought that the hon. Gentleman's references to the problems of his constituency fully lived up to the example set by his predecessor. [HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."]

I should like to refer to the hon. Member's closing remarks. I am certain that I speak on behalf of both sides of the House when I say that the biggest problem for the next five years will be the world food problem. This was touched on by the hon. Member for Workington (Mr. Peart), though he had forgotten that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Industry, Trade and Regional Development and President of the Board of Trade had put forward 11 points at Geneva to the United Nations, presenting Her Majesty's Government's policy on this very problem. I hope that we will not have to wait until October for further developments. After all, the Commonwealth Prime Ministers are coming here very shortly—at the beginning of July. I hope that the Government will discuss with them these problems of the stabilisation of commodity prices, the disposal of surpluses and a way of helping developing countries to get an income from their produce.

I want to concentrate my remarks on the question of meat. During the Whit-sun Recess a number of speeches were made by members of the Opposition. The Leader of the Opposition said, Meat policy is in total disarray. He was speaking in Inverness on 23rd May. Although the right hon. Gentleman thought that meat policy was in total disarray, he has not troubled to come to this debate. The hon. Member for Sheffield, Hillsborough (Mr. Darling), who is present today, wrote in the Co-operative News:The meat trade is completely chaotic. No one knows what is going on. Farmers, importers, wholesalers, and traders have to guess. It was clear from the speech today of the hon. Member for Workington that he did not know what was going on in the meat trade.