Orders of the Day — Economic Policy

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 3 February 1943.

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Photo of Sir Percy Harris Sir Percy Harris , Bethnal Green South West

Then perhaps I ought to have said there was not sufficient emphasis laid upon agriculture. As the Member for South-West Bethnal Green, I do not intend to put forward an agricultural policy but I will say that it must play its part in reconstruction after the war and in absorbing surplus labour. I remember Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman once saying in his pawky way that land should be less a pleasure house for the few and more a treasure house for the people. Agriculture must be put on sound lines. The Government have a Minister of Agriculture who goes about the country making speeches and vague promises. The Government have a responsibility to detail what their policy will be under peace conditions, because you cannot divorce agriculture from world trade. After the war agriculture must never become bankrupt again and be treated as a pauperised industry. It will mean a revolution in our land system if our farmers are to have a fair deal under conditions which will put them in at least as good a position as the farmers in Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

In conclusion, I will say that the nation is convinced that the Government can deal with mass unemployment if they have the will to do it. During the war it has been reduced by something like one per cent. The argument has been put forward that that has become possible because so many are in the Services. Those men and women, from an economic point of view, have been employed in unproductive work. I do not believe it is impossible, if the Government and the nation are prepared to face up to it, to prevent a reoccurrence of the scandals between 1918 and 1939, when there was queueing up at Employment Exchanges of willing men who were prepared to work but who were not able to find it. After all, during this war, with channels of trade closed and submarines infesting the sea, we have been able to keep going the economic life of the country without seriously injuring the health of the people. If we can reinstate trade on a different basis than before the last war, prevent economic nationalism, get co-operation between the States and at the same time recondition our own country we may yet be able to produce a state of affairs after this war that will satisfy the people that they have not fought in vain and that we have had the prescience and wisdom to work out plans to make society a decent place for all alike.