Oral Answers to Questions — National Finance – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 25 February 1947.
Mr Oliver Crosthwaite-Eyre
, New Forest and Christchurch
12:00,
25 February 1947
asked the Chancellor of the exchequer in terms of sterling, the anticipated additional expenditure in kroner during 1947 as a result of the ratification of the Anglo-Danish trade negotiations.
Mr Hugh Dalton
, Bishop Auckland
No, Sir. We do not yet know what quantities the Danes will, in fact, be able to deliver.
Mr Oliver Crosthwaite-Eyre
, New Forest and Christchurch
Will the right hon. Gentleman give an assurance that authoritative statements made at Copenhagen, that we were going to pay more for agricultural imports from Denmark, and undertake to ship animal feedingstuffs to Denmark, under this agreement, will not be realised?
Mr Hugh Dalton
, Bishop Auckland
We have been negotiating with the Danes with a view to getting some food out of them, and the amount of food they can deliver will depend upon the volume of Danish imports of feeding-stuffs. The two are connected, and are within the terms of the discussion which is now going on.
Mr Oliver Crosthwaite-Eyre
, New Forest and Christchurch
Would it not be better to keep our feedingstuffs here, and let home agriculture have a chance, for once?
Mr Hugh Dalton
, Bishop Auckland
I daresay that my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture would have an opinion about that, if the hon. and gallant Gentleman would put a Question on the Paper.
The chancellor of the exchequer is the government's chief financial minister and as such is responsible for raising government revenue through taxation or borrowing and for controlling overall government spending.
The chancellor's plans for the economy are delivered to the House of Commons every year in the Budget speech.
The chancellor is the most senior figure at the Treasury, even though the prime minister holds an additional title of 'First Lord of the Treasury'. He normally resides at Number 11 Downing Street.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
