General Ad Valorem Customs Duty.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 9 February 1932.

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Photo of Mr Richard Wallhead Mr Richard Wallhead , Merthyr Tydfil Merthyr

With all due deference to the hon. and learned Member for South Nottingham (Mr. Knight) it is a farce to call this a National Government. It is backed by the whole of the Conservative party and by the whole of the Liberal party, with the exception of a small minority, but it is not backed by the Labour party. Therefore, to call it a National Government is somewhat in the nature of a farce. As a matter of fact, what we are getting now is a conservative policy, for the Conservative party could not conceivably have done more than has been done by this so-called National Government. We get the Conservative point of view in the Bill and the Liberal point of view put by the Home Secretary, but the Socialist point of view is not put at all. This National Government is singularly deficient in that aspect of the case. It will not be denied that there is a Socialist case to be put.

I am not going to say that the Conservative party have no right to be jubilant at the success of the election. I took very little part in it. My part was confined chiefly to reading, and my reading of the election convinced me that it was a particularly bad type of election and was won by a series of the worst misrepresentations that could possibly be conceived. The Prime Minister's neurotic speeches about the descent of the £ to the level of the German mark, marks him down as either a knave or fool. If he knew that what he was saying was wrong he was a knave, and if he did not know that what he was saying was wrong he was a fool. Then we had the late Chancellor of the Exchequer talking about the £ going down and down like the German mark. It was a very bad business and millions of people were simply jockeyed into supporting the National Government through a fear of what might happen.

The first thing for which the National Government was primarily formed—to keep us on the Gold Standard—they failed to do, and having gone off the Gold Standard every promise they made with respect to it has been falsified by events. At the same time they take credit for any improvement that has taken place as being due to the tact that we are not on the Gold Standard but on sterling, and that we are maintaining ourselves with wonderful efficiency. Those people who say that the proposals of the Government are not Protection are confining themselves to the idea of the general 10 per cent. tariff and forgetting all the other resolutions and proposals, A re- markable commission is to be set up with more powers even than the House of Commons. It is going to have power, on the top of the 10 per cent. tariff, to impose duties up to 100 per cent. That is Protection. [An HON. MEMBER: "On selected trades"] They can select ad libitum, there is no restriction on the number of trades to which it may be applied. To say that we are not entering upon a phase of protection is beside the mark and stretching the imagination rather unduly.